Huge underground deposit of ice found on Mars

New York, Nov 23: Using data from SA’s Mars Reconissance Orbiter, scientists have discovered a large deposit of ice beneath a region of cracked and pitted plains on Mars. The deposit ranges in thickness from about 260 feet to about 560 feet, with a composition that is 50 to 85 per cent water ice, mixed with dust or larger rocky particles, the researchers reported. “This deposit probably formed as snowfall accumulating into an ice sheet mixed with dust during a period in Mars history when the planet’s axis was more tilted than it is today,” said lead author of the study Cassie Stuurman from the University of Texas at Austin in the US. The scientists examined part of Mars’ Utopia Planitia region in the mid-northern latitudes with the orbiter’s ground-penetrating Shallow Radar (SHARAD) instrument. (IANS)

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