Liquid water tank on Mars

Scientists believe they have discovered a reservoir of liquid water on Mars, deep within the planet’s rocky outer crust.

These results come from a new analysis of data from NASA’s Mars Insight Lander, which arrived on Mars in 2018.

The plane had a seismometer, which recorded four years of tremors deep within the Red Planet. Analysis of those tremors — and exactly how the planet was moving — revealed “seismic signatures” of liquid water.

Seismic surveys

While we knew he was there frozen water at the poles of mars and indicators vapors in the atmosphereThis is the first time liquid water has been found on this planet.

Giant reservoir of frozen water discovered on Mars

The results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. InSight’s science mission ended in December 2022. During that time, the probe recorded more than 1,319 earthquakes.

By measuring how fast the seismic waves travel, the scientists calculated which materials were most likely to move. “These are actually the same techniques we use to look for water on Earth or to look for oil and gas,” Professor Michael Manga of the University of California, who was involved in the research, told the BBC.

The analysis revealed water reservoirs at depths of about six to 12 miles (10 to 20 km) in the Martian crust. “Understanding the water cycle on Mars is critical to understanding the evolution of the climate, surface and interior,” said lead researcher Dr. Vasan Wright, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

The planet has been a desert for 3 billion years.

Studies of the surface of Mars – with its channels and undulations – show that in ancient times there were rivers and lakes on the planet.
But for three billion years, it was a desert.

Some of this water was lost to space when Mars lost its atmosphere. But, as Professor Manga said, here on Earth, “most of our water is underground, and there’s no reason why that shouldn’t be the case on Mars.”