Could Volcanic Activity Allow Water Beneath the Martian Polar Ice?
By Elizabeth Howell 11 hours ago
Ice at Mars' south pole may hide volcanic activity.A view of the south pole of Mars, where ice may hide volcanic activity.(Image: © NASA)
If liquid water indeed exists under the south polar ice cap of Mars, it has to be due to volcanic activity, a new study suggests.
The researchers behind the new work argued that there needs to be an underground source of heat to melt ice under an ice cap — although they didn't weigh in on whether that liquid water (or the volcanic heat, for that matter) actually exists on Mars.
The new study follows up a controversial finding published in the journal Science last July, in which a European Space Agency orbiter, Mars Express, spotted signs of what could be a slurry or a liquid-water lake under the polar ice. At the time, the idea was that a high concentration of salt could keep the water from freezing despite Mars' chilly temperatures. What's strange about that finding is that NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter didn't see any sign of a lake, even though that craft's ground-penetrating radar vision should theoretically be able to spot such a feature. [Photos: Red Planet Views from Europe's Mars Express]
If the water is indeed there, the new study said, a magma chamber must have formed sometime in the past few hundred thousand years under the Martian surface in order to melt the water; salt wouldn't do the trick. (The scientists also pointed out that if the water does not exist, the magmatic activity would also be absent.)
More:
https://www.space.com/mars-volcanic-activity-under-ice.html