What Happened to Water on Mars?

So where did the water on Mars go? The water that made all these channels and gullies and so on and so forth. Sounds like there used to be quite a bit of it. There certainly isn’t an amount of ice at the poles that would account for all the water that has flowed on the planet. So what happened to it?

There has been a lot of press lately about evidence of water discovered on Mars. nearly every month this year something has developed in the gathering of water evidence on Mars for scientists to say it definitely existed.

This isn’t really a new story though. This link to NASA’s web site talks about the Mars Global Surveyor finding evidence of water on Mars. This was in June 2000. 

What’s good about this link is that it offers an explanation as to what happened to the water that once made these gullies on Mars.

The atmospheric pressure at the surface of Mars is about 100 times less than it is at sea level on Earth. This lower pressure allows the liquid water to boil, violently and intensely. The gullies formed from the rapid outflow of water from the interior, creating these chasms before the water boiled off. The outflow of water and debris from inside Mars must have occurred repeatedly, over and over.

There is an oddity to the gullies. They are found in the coldest regions of Mars, not quite where one would expect to find them.

The water on Mars is believed to be about a quarter of a mile below the surface. Certainly reachable by humans, as some mines are Earth reach down a mile underground. This means human explorers to Mars could access the water for drinking, for creating breathable air, and for extracting oxygen and hydrogen for energy.

Okay, so now I have another question. If the water boiled off, where did the hydrogen and oxygen go? Mars atmosphere is thinner than the atmosphere on Earth.

Oh well. One answer satisfies for now. I thought it was a very interesting answer too.

 

Phoenix to Land on Mars in One Week

Next Sunday, May 25, at about 6:38 pm Central Time, the new Phoenix Mars Lander will land on Mars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phoenix is the first in NASA’s “Scout Program”. It is designed to study the history of water and search for complex organic molecules in the ice-rich soil of the Martian arctic.

Water has not been found on the surface of Mars, believed to be a cold desert planet; Phoenix will target the northern plains of the planet utilizing a robotic arm that can dig through the protective top soil layer to the water-ice below. Samples will be acquired for analysis.

Designed to be a low cost part of the overall Mars exploration mission, the goals of which are: (1) determine whether life ever arose on Mars; (2) characterize the climate of Mars; (3) characterize the geology of Mars; and, (4) prepare for eventual human landing and exploration.

Phoenix is a fitting name for this endeavor as it uses many components of two unsuccessful prior missions to Mars. In a sense then, the name like the mythical bird, denotes something that has risen from the ashes to be part of the Mars exploration effort.

Hopefully, there will be early pictures released soon after the landing that I can post. This mission is a nice follow up to the Spirit and Opportunity rover missions.

 

Channels, Nanedi Vallis	Water-ice, North Polar Cap	Gullies, Terra Sirenum