• Andrew
• Jul 17,2008
• In: News

Water was once “widespread” on Mars

Data from a NASA Spacecraft shows that water was once widespread on Mars, making it more probable that the planet could once support life.

Those dudes-who-do-tons-of-research found evidence of rivers, lakes and deltas way back when. They also discovered and concluded that the wet conditions were persistant on the planet for a long time.

One study shows vast regions of Mars’ highlands, (pretty much half the planet) contain clay materials… which can be formed only with water around.

Volcanic lavas buried the clay during drier periods of the planet’s history… that had volcanic lava… (dry… laval… hmm…) however impact by giant rocks that tend to fall out of space into a planet created craters that exposed the clay at thousands of locations across Mars.

The clay minerals, which they call “phyllosilicates” (isn’t “clay” easier?) preserve a record of the interaction of water with rocks dating back to the Noachian period of Martian history… which was from like 4.6 to 3.8 billion years ago.

This was a time in which the Earth, moon and Mars were being pummeled by comets and asteroids because little children thought it would be funny to throw giant rocks at them.

It wasn’t this hot, boiling cauldron. It was a benign, water-rich environment for a long period of time

Jack Mustard, Brown University