A recent study suggests that Mars may be hiding an ocean’s worth of water beneath its red, dusty surface. According to findings published on Monday, seismic data from NASA’s Mars InSight lander indicate that underground water may be present in the Martian crust, potentially forming a global ocean.
The research, led by Vashan Wright of the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is based on seismic measurements collected by the InSight lander before it ceased operations two years ago. The lander detected over 1,300 marsquakes, and these seismic events provided crucial data for the study.
Wright’s team estimates that the water is likely located between seven to 12 miles (11.5 kilometers to 20 kilometers) beneath Mars’ surface. They believe this water may have seeped underground billions of years ago when Mars was home to rivers, lakes, and possibly oceans.
“Just because water still may be sloshing around inside Mars does not mean it holds life,” Wright clarified in an email. “Instead, our findings mean that there are environments that could possibly be habitable.”
The team used a combination of computer models and seismic data from InSight, including the speed at which seismic waves traveled through the Martian crust, to determine that underground water is the most likely explanation for their findings. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
If the location of InSight at Elysium Planitia, near Mars’ equator, is representative of the entire planet, the underground water could be enough to fill a global ocean one to two kilometers deep, Wright said.
However, confirming the presence of this water and investigating any potential signs of microbial life would require drills and other specialized equipment. Although the InSight lander is no longer operational, scientists are continuing to analyze the data it collected from 2018 to 2022 to gain further insights into Mars’ interior.
Mars, which was likely wet and habitable over three billion years ago, is believed to have lost its surface water as its atmosphere thinned, turning the planet into the dry and dusty world we know today. Scientists theorize that much of this ancient water either escaped into space or remains buried beneath the surface.
Gary P Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
