Mars Geological Features Could Be Shaped By Boiling Water

Boiling water on Mars could be responsible for the shape of the Martian slopes, according to a new report. Scientists have suggested that a fluid might be responsible for the changing geological features of Mars.

According to a report, the slopes on the red planet appear to change seasonally due to sediments flowing down them, which results in carvings, crevices and gullies. As per researchers, these processes might be triggered by a liquid; however there wasn't any direct evidence of any such fluid until last year.

In September 2015, researchers announced that they had discovered the evidence of hydrated salts on the planet. According to the observations, the hydrated salts detected on slopes implied that salty water flew down crater, canyon and mountain slopes on the red planet. Consequently, NASA confirmed evidence that liquid water flows on Mars owing to the presence of hydrated salts. However, Mars is a dry planet and there is very little water in its atmosphere, so scientists were baffled with the creation of carved out geological features with such low flow of water.

According to a researcher, such a phenomenon could be attributed to the atmospheric conditions prevalent on Mars. "Is it possible to explain the features we're seeing with smaller amounts of water?" said Alfred McEwen, from Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) in University of Arizona (UA). "A small amount of water can trigger larger-scale change on the surface than we would expect. Water behaves on Mars is different from the way that it behaves on Earth ". The conditions on Mars are different from Earth, owing to the former's thinner atmospheric pressure, and water is brought to a boil due a different pressure instead of high temperatures.

A laboratory experiment was conducted by an international team of scientists who set up slopes of sediment in a laboratory that mimicked the conditions on Earth and Mars. A chunk of ice was placed on top of the slopes at a temperature of 293 Kelvin (67.7 degrees F.) and 6.5 mbar or 9 mbar under Mars barometric pressure. Incidentally, our planet's standard sea level pressure is 1000 mbar. It was observed that as the ice slowly melted it released liquid water into the sediments. However, according to reports, some scientists are of the opinion that these experiments are not perfect scale models; they are more of a qualitative analog in which the physical occurrence may be similar even if the exact characteristics and forces of the materials involved are not.  

At the moment, finding the source of water on Mars is the real puzzle according to scientists. Rovers, in all likelihood, won't be checking probable sites due to scientists' fear of contaminating any existing life or conditions. Evidence of liquid flows on Mars will be continued to be observed and monitored from the skies, by spacecraft orbiting the planet. Hydrated salts were spotted on the planet last year by an imaging spectrometer on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).