New research based on seismic measurements from NASA’s Mars InSight lander suggests that there may be enough water hiding in underground rocks beneath the surface of Mars to potentially form an ocean. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicate that water in fractures located 11.5km to 20km beneath the surface could have collected there billions of years ago when Mars had rivers, lakes, and possibly oceans. Lead scientist Vashan Wright of the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography stated that the ingredients for life could exist in the Martian subsurface if these interpretations are correct.
InSight Lander was the first craft dedicated to studying Mars’s interior, located at Elysium Planitia near Mars’s equator. If this location is representative of the rest of the planet, the underground water detected could potentially fill a global ocean 1-2km deep. Confirmation of the presence of water and any potential signs of microbial life would require drills and other equipment.
Scientists have been analyzing data collected by the InSight lander in search of more information about Mars’s interior. Mars, once wet all over more than 3 billion years ago, is now a dry, dusty world as it lost its surface water when its atmosphere thinned. Theories suggest that much of this ancient water either escaped into space or remains buried below the surface. Further exploration will be needed to confirm the findings and potentially uncover more secrets about Mars’s past and present.
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