The volume of water is estimated to be enough to cover Mars in an ocean about a mile deep.
Posted by Leslie Eastman
Scientists have discovered a significant reservoir of liquid water deep beneath the surface of Mars, marking a major breakthrough in our understanding of the Red Planet’s water cycle and potential for habitability
The discovery was made using data from NASA’s Mars InSight lander, which recorded seismic activity on Mars for four years before its mission concluded in December 2022. By analyzing the velocity of seismic waves from Marsquakes, researchers could infer the presence of liquid water in the planet’s rocky outer crust.
Three billion years ago, Mars was covered with oceans and flowing rivers of water. Today, the Red Planet’s landscape is starkly different, with no liquid surface water—just patches of frozen water ice—and rocky channels and dry lakebeds where rivers and lakes once were.
But miles beneath its surface, Mars might contain a massive reservoir of water trapped within the nooks and crannies of porous, volcanic rock, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. If extracted, researchers say it would be enough water to create a planet-wide ocean about a mile deep.
Data from NASA’s InSight lander, a robot designed to study the deep interior of Mars, revealed the underground ocean. Still, the water is not a single, giant reservoir; it’s instead encased within the miniature cracks of the planet’s crust, between about 7 and 13 miles deep. The findings could help researchers piece together what happened to all the water on Mars billions of years ago—and it might be the next place to look for signs of life.
Using data collected by the SEIS (Seismic Experiment for the Interior Structure) instrument, researchers Ikuo Katayama of Hiroshima University and Yuya Akamatsu of the Research Institute for Marine Geodynamics in Japan believe that the seismic waves show that the underground water is 6-12 miles deep beneath the barren surface.
SEIS was the first ever seismometer to operate on Mars, and it was sensitive to three different types of seismic wave emanating from marsquakes. These were: P-waves, which oscillate back and forth similar to how a sound wave propagates; S-waves which oscillate up and down, perpendicular to the direction of travel; and surface waves, which travel along the surface of Mars similar to ripples in a pond.
The new research was focused on the subterranean P-waves and S-waves. P-waves are the faster seismic waves, while S-waves are slower and cannot travel through water because liquid does not permit that kind of oscillation perpendicular to motion. Seismometers measuring these two different types of seismic wave can help reveal the density and composition of the underground medium (such as water, or rock) through which those waves travelled, based on how strong their signals are and how long it took them to reach the seismometer.
With that in mind, Katayama and Akamatsu honed in on two transitional regions in the seismic data, where there appear to be sudden changes in the properties of the interior of the Red Planet at depths of 6.2 to 12.4 miles (10 and 20 kilometers), very close to where previous studies claim to have found evidence for liquid water.
This finding is a good news/bad news for those hoping to colonize Mars.
The good news is that there is potentially available water on the planet, which can be mined and recycled for use. As with groundwater on Earth, Mars water resides in cracks and crevices.
The bad news is that there is a potential for microbial life in that water.
On Earth, these water-filled rocks can host microbes even while buried deep in the crust, said Michael Manga, study author and professor of planetary geology at the University of California at Berkeley. Since liquid water is one of the basic requirements for life as we know it, does that mean Mars could also host microbes underground?
“That’s the bazillion-dollar question,” Manga added.
And such life would make the calculations and decisions related to exploring and colonizing Mars challenging.
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There is no life on Mars, and humans will never colonize it, either.
“Never” is a very long time!
And people who have “intelligent” in their screen names aren’t necessarily so.
I agree!
You mean you’re not a Viking? 😉
You don’t know either of those to be true.
Things that haven’t happened yet can never be known to be true.
Think about it. Claiming otherwise defies logic.
Likely yes on both counts, but we can try to do something about the first point.
There are no absolutes.
So “absolute zero” doesn’t exist? 🤪
You are right. Everywhere that has ever been observed is at least 3 degrees Kelvin.
Absolutely
Absolute zero is a definition and the definition is that no kinetic energy is available for temperature. It does not mean zero energy as it does not apply to potential energy.
It is a hypothesis, but without test and verification it does not even classify as a theory.
It exists, but you can’t get there from here.
I agree, it’s a fantasy.
Interesting but I will believe it when they drill a hole and actually pump it out.
Mars has a history of volcanism as shown by Mons Olympus. That means it once had a hot interior. Now this heat has gone is the story, but how do we know what currently the temperature is at 7 to 13 miles depth? It doesn’t take much to have it sufficiently warm to have steam, so why do we not see geysers at the surface? It appears to me that the whole idea of water at those depths is critically dependent on what we believe we know about the propagation of seismic waves on the planet.
Well, Ed. What can I say.? Drill, baby drill!!
Or maybe just nuke it?
The Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia was the deepest hole ever drilled on earth at 7.6 miles deep (12.3km)
The article says that the Martian water is 6-12 miles deep. So it’s somewhere between 79% as deep as the deepest hole ever drilled on earth, and 58% deeper than the deepest hole ever drilled on earth.
And it’s in the nooks and crannies, not a reservoir.
And it’s likely to be far saltier than earth’s ocean water.
Other than that, easy peasy.
There is evidence that Mars is still more geologically active than was first thought. Some signs of recent liquid water making it to the surface have been found. If a future human settlement could liberate enough water in a short period of time, it could be terraformed. It would be an interesting study (perhaps already done?), how long would a terraformed Martian atmosphere last in the absence of a protective magnetic field (I’m talking about now, not what happened millions of years ago).
Even on the Earth, geysers only occur where magma is very close to the surface. We know that the Earth’s interior is hotter than the interior of Mars, by a huge margin and there are only a handful of places on Earth with geysers.
For a geyser to form, the water must remain above the boiling point until it reaches the surface.
Given the depth of the hot rocks, and how cold the surface is, this is very unlikely.
Why do you believe that the propagation of seismic waves will be that much different on Mars. We already know that the surface rocks are nearly identical to those found on the Earth.
Boiling point on Mars must be much lower than on Earth.
Any Marsian groundwater is also likely to be much more salty than Earth groundwater.
If the interior heat is the result of nuclear fission in the core, it is still probably warm inside. May not be hot enough for liquid metal core or magma, but still warm.
“decisions related to exploring and colonizing Mars “
Anyone going to Mars should plan on staying there.
Folks such as Rosie O’Donnell are good candidates.
1. Musk claims he’ll have humans on Mars in the next 5 years. This is possible.
2. Musk claims that in 20 years or so that we will have 1 million people colonizing mars in SELF SUSTAINING fashion.
3. He claims that this will allow humans to escape our planet that we are destroying from the climate crisis because of too much CO2.
4. The amount of well mixed CO2 right now on our planet is just under 430 parts per million. The amount of atmospheric CO2 on mars is 950,000 parts per million. More than 2,000 times the level on earth.
5. Mars atmosphere is 95%+ CO2 and there is 0 oxygen.
6. There is no organic matter on the planet. Martian soil is toxic for plants and people because of the high level of perchlorates(chlorine)
https://letstalkscience.ca/educational-resources/backgrounders/soil-on-mars
7. The distance from the sun means that sunlight is too weak to conduct effective photosynthesis. Constant dust storms also block out the sun.
8. The average temperature on Mars is about minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 60 degrees Celsius), although it can vary from minus 195 F (minus 125 C) near the poles during the winter to as much as a comfortable 70 F (20 C) at midday near the equator.
9. Because there is no atmosphere and no magnetic field on mars, the amount of damaging radiation from the sun That bombards the surface is 700 times the level on earth.
10. it took almost a year to rescue a handful of people stuck in space just above the earth. Somehow, in 2 decades we will be able to get 1 million people on mars using the same technology. Mars is 50 millions miles away,. 20 times farther than the moon.
12. Even if this were possible , the cost would be in many trillions….but it’s NOT possible.
Musk is an extremely brilliant man, especially in marketing.
He uses this Mars colonization fairy tale to help generate government funding/secure costly government contracts and to attract gullible investors.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/nasa-astronauts-elon-musk-spacex-rcna196903
Come on, man! Didn’t you see Total Recall? the Martians had it all figured out.
Atmospheric pressure of Mars is about 1% that of Earth, you have to factor that in when calculating how much CO2 is in Mars’ atmosphere. Your calculations assume the same air pressure.
True, however there is several times more CO2 in Mars atmosphere than there is in earth’s atmosphere.
ppm, true. Total mass? Unknown.
Yes to all these points against colonizing Mars. There’s no there—there. Not only is the soil heavily contaminated—I thought it was halogens—the water will be contaminated also, and it’s at least 10km. It is very difficult to drill this deep on Earth, let alone with the added complexities on Mars.
The basic point is, there are no resources on Mars. When people on Earth colonize a new place, they don’t colonize Death Valley, the colonize a place with water, food, and fuel. Mars lacks all of these, and moreover Mars lacks the ability to produce food if you bring seeds.
Colonizing Mars by humans is probably not possible in any foreseeable future, but seeding it with life forms capable of establishing a biosphere might be worth a try.
just need poop and potatoes (see matt damon)
Yes!
I should have also added that the amount of well mixed CO2 right now on our planet of just under 430 parts per million is less than half the optimal level for most life, which is closer to 900 ppm.
Going from a garden paradise in the Goldilocks zone, with near perfect conditions for almost every metric needed for life here on earth, especially as earth greens up from the increase in beneficial CO2 to a hell hole that lacks almost everything needed for life at a cost of multi-trillion dollars….supposedly to escape the garden paradise is a messed up mentality.
Distance from Earth to Mars varies from 34.7 mln miles to 249 mln miles.
At the closest point Mars is 145 times farther than the Moon.
I could not agree more about marketing.
Someone, thanks very much for the correction. That was a typing error, missing the last 0. That should have been 200 times farther and as you showed, that varies tremendously.
200 times farther than the moon, not 20 times farther.
Cool! So then all we would have to do is this.
And once the air comes back, no permanent damage!
Tis is as scientific as Legal Insurrection goes.
‘The bad news is that there is a potential for microbial life in that water.’
Oh, let’s find out! Perhaps when the Dems are back in the saddle they can team up with their pals in China to send out a probe and retrieve samples. The ‘Wuhan Challenger’ would be a great name, no?
/s
Assuming liquid water could be sampled it could be robotically tested in situ with results sent to we Earthlings. Why microbial life in the water is “bad news” is unexplained.
Microbial Lives Matter
It is bad news because it is unknown and potentially a pathogen that humans have no resistance to.
Why do you think in the early NASA missions they required 2 weeks of quarantine for returning astronauts? Same concern.
colonize with one way trips … nobody returns home … still plenty of volunteers …
Wait a sec. If pumped out the water would cover Mars a mile deep, then I guess the existing surface would have to shrink a mile inwards. Or something. Major subsidence on a global scale. With no leaks. Is this “science” or voodoo hoohoo?
Now that’s a bazillion-dollar question.
The water is not in large pools. It is believed to exist in cracks, etc., and bonded in other solid matter.
Squeeze a sponge. Lots of water. Did the sponge change size? Just a thought experiment.
Life there would not complicate anything. We are humans, we are the top of the food chain, outside of God. If it would benefit us to colonize we will and should do so.
Microbes can be scrubbed and killed to make the water useful.
I wonder if they will ever figure out how to move Mars closer to the sun in order to make it warm enough for habitation and to make that water into an ocean…
Mars really needs a protective magnetic field as well. Lots of work to do, and so far we have very little power to make any of the real needed work reality.
If we can get fusion reactors to work, that would be a massive leap towards colonizing beyond the terestrial earth.
Didn’t H.G. Wells in his sci-fi classic The War of the Worlds postulate that the reason the Martians invaded Earth was that their planet had exhausted all its available water supplies, and ours had just what they needed. So before landing here and succumbing to all the microbes that their bodies had no defenses against, maybe they should have examined under their surface and cut their losses.
Or maybe they should have tested the Earth’s air and water before landing.
Six to twelve miles beneath the surface. The Kola borehole in Russia made it to 6.7 miles between 1970 and 1992. That was a “big rig”operation, tons of steel and plenty of power available.
Maybe after Mars has steel mills and rolling plants, and a seriously healthy energy system. In the meantime, for easy availability for terraforming, that water may as well be earth.
See Dr Who: “The Waters of Mars”. (There was life in the water, and it ate the colonists).
I don’t understand this fascination with Mars, it is too far away, it is cold, we can’t breathe the air, we would have to bring our food and water up there. Nope I don’t see it.
Why all the fuss about Mars? Humans can’t live there, too far to travel without losing half of your skeleton. Humans are not designed for long space exploration. We would have to live inside for protection. A complete waste of money and resources. Plenty of problems on this planet that could use the money.
Mars offers the promise of additional natural resources and living space.
It is much more congenial than, say, Venus.
People need to do something.
If they do not don’t have an outlet they will go crazy on an individual basis, or they may join a group and;
kill the other neighboring Indians clansjoin up with the brown shirtstry to stop energy productionpush specific religionrestrain specific religionencourage boys/girls as viewing themselves as women/men/otherkill the ‘others’take resources from ‘others’restrict ‘others’ from succeedingsell new or used carsfind & solve problems on this planet that could use the moneySeems that those that join the Mars group will be less problematic than other types of joiners.
*kill the other neighboring Indians clans
*join up with the brown shirts
*try to stop energy production
*push specific religion
*restrain specific religion
*encourage boys/girls as viewing themselves as women/men/other
*kill the ‘others’
*take resources from ‘others’
*restrict ‘others’ from succeeding
*sell new or used cars
*find & solve problems on this planet that could use the money
Seems that those that join the Mars group will be less problematic than other types of joiners.
Water, water everywhere. And all the boards did shrink.
Water, water everywhere. Nor any drop to drink.