Scientists Discovered Ice Deposit On Mars With As Much Water As Lake Superior

Scientists scan the Mars' Utopia Planitia region and found an ice deposit that holds as much water as the Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes of North America. The ice deposit ranges in thickness from about 260 feet (80 meters) to about 560 feet (170 meters).

Believe it or not, this ice deposit on Mars holds about as much water as what's in Lake Superior! Take a look: https://t.co/9M5MUyYbmK pic.twitter.com/mXetyxcuCz

— NASA (@NASA) November 22, 2016

The team of researchers used the NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and discovered that the ice deposit has a composition that is 50 percent to 85 percent water ice and mixed with dust or larger rocky particles. They completed more than 600 scans in the mid-latitude region of the planet Mars and came up with the discovery, according to NASA.

The findings of the study were printed in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. It was led by Cassie Stuurman, the lead author of the study from the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas, Austin, and other colleagues. Stuurman said that the deposit is 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.

The deposit is covered by a soil approximately about 3 to 33 feet (1 to 10 meters) thick. It accounts for just 1 percent of all known water ice on Mars. On the other hand, this can help scientists comprehend the history of Mars, according to CBC.

Jack Holt of the University of Texas and co-author of the study said that the deposit is probably more accessible than most water ice on Mars. This is because it is at a relatively low latitude and it lies on a flat, smooth area where landing a spacecraft would be easier than at some of other areas with buried ice.

Meanwhile, Leslie Tamppari from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said that early Mars had enough liquid water on the surface for rivers and lakes. "Where did it go? Much of it left the planet from the top of the atmosphere...But there's also a large quantity that is now underground ice and we want to keep learning more about that."