Thursday, November 20, 2008

Buried Martian Glaciers

Presumably much like what they call 'rock glaciers' in the mountains around here. This is encouraging!:
NASA scientists have discovered enormous underground reservoirs of frozen water on Mars, away from its polar caps, in the latest sign that life might be sustainable on the Red planet.

Ground-penetrating radar used by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveals numerous huge glaciers up to 800 metres thick buried beneath layers of rock and debris. Researchers said one glacier is three times the size of Los Angeles in area.

"All together, these glaciers almost certainly represent the largest reservoir of water ice on Mars that's not in the polar caps," said John Holt, a geophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin and lead author of a report about the discovery, which appears in the November 21 issue of the journal Science.

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