The desert planet is not as dry as it seems!
This is the assumption of a group of US scientists based on the latest findings. Researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego have analyzed recordings of Marsquakes, which show that there could be groundwater in the deepest depths of the red planet.
At a depth of 11.5 to 20 kilometers, large amounts of water are said to be distributed between the fractured Martian rock – so much that it could flood the entire planet several kilometers high.
Mars was probably once very similar to Earth
The seismic data was recorded by the InSight spacecraft between 2018 and 2022 and shows that the earthquake waves are distributed very differently in deep rock layers. Certain waves indicate that they hit not only brittle rocks but also liquid water.
The InSight space probe measures seismic waves on Mars
It is assumed that the Mars over three billion years ago, it was anything but a desert, but was criss-crossed by rivers and lakes. Because: This discovery is not the first to show that the red planet could once have been very similar to Earth. There are not only underground ice glaciers there, but also kilometers of ice layers at the poles and around the equator.
In addition, the surface of Mars is furrowed by the once briskly flowing rivers.
These are the ice fields that were scanned with radar measurements
Traces of life
Until now, however, it was not clear what had happened to the large masses of water. Now it looks as if a large part of it has seeped into deep layers of rock. Theoretically, enough to supply the first possible Mars settlers with water. However, this water is impossible to access. The deepest boreholes so far have only reached a depth of twelve kilometers.
Only a few weeks ago, the Mars Rover Perseverance Chemical traces of microorganisms were discovered on rocks on the surface of Mars. The Neretva Vallis is a 400-meter-wide, ancient river valley that was formed long ago by inflowing water.