Martian Sea Discovered

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Posted by timothy on Monday February 21, 2005 @01:57AM from the martian-ice-cube-you-mean dept.

mpesce writes "New Scientist is reporting that a large sea of frozen ice (between 800 and 900 km in size and 45 m deep) has been discovered by the ESA's Mars Express Probe. Here's the kicker: the sea of block ice is only five degrees away from the Martian equator. New Scientist also links to a PDF of a paper to be presented next month about the finding." Update: 02/21 15:30 GMT by T : Note: that's 45 meters deep, not 45 kilometers deep.

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45 *meters* deep by pfdietz · 2005-02-21 02:03 · Score: 5, Informative

That's 45 meters deep, not kilometers.
How many kilometers? by dorward · 2005-02-21 02:03 · Score: 5, Informative

That's 800km by 900km (i.e. 800km wide and 900km long). It isn't between 800km and 900km!
1. Re:How many kilometers? by cdrudge · 2005-02-21 03:40 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Area: Football Fields. Defined as 60x100 square yards, or 501.6 square meters. The European equivalent is the tennis court, which is 668.9 square meters.
  You don't happen to be a NASA scientist by chance, are you? You are off on your order of magnitude on your yards to meter conversion. 6,000 sq yards is ~5016 sq meters.
  
  And what type of tennis do you play? 668.9 sq meters? Good grief. A US doubles court is 36 feet x 78 feet (~261 sq meters). Unless you are also including in the areas around the court, I can't see where your 668.9 sq meters came from.
nothing of the sort by SkunkPussy · 2005-02-21 02:04 · Score: 5, Informative

they have not detected any form of frozen sea, they have merely found some peculiar formations that they hyopthesise may be blocks of ice covered in volcanic ash (which has prevented it subliming into the atmosphere). Another hypothesis is that these formations may have been caused by lava flows.

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SURELY NOT!!!!!
1. Re:nothing of the sort by Ayaress · 2005-02-21 02:49 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  I don't think there is liquid magma, since all the papers and articles from probes that I've read have never said anything about significant activity like earthquakes (Marsquakes?). Also, the lack of a substantial mangnetic field suggests a solid core (Venus, on the other hand, lacks a magnetic field because it's rotational rate is so slow). Venus also shows signs of relatively recent and catastrophic volcanic activity. It's atmostphere is volcanic, it has very few craters on its surface, and those that are there are young and well-defined. It doesn't have older partially eroded craters, but there are a few partially covered in lava flows or with their rims still protruding above lava fields. The youngest Martian lava flows are older and smaller, suggesting not only a lack of recent activity, but a decline in activity before it stopped. Anyway, like you said, this IS, nonetheless, probably our best bet for finding existing life, or signs of past life. It doesn't neccessarily take heat for life to survive, although life in every form we've encountered thus far (Not that we really have an abundance of data to go on) at least required heat to start, which Mars once had just as much as Earth. Near the equator, it's not that cold. The conditions in those ice packs may be no worse than some arctic conditions on Earth. Life probably couldn't form there, but it could certainly survive there.
Meters not Kilometers... by BlacKat · 2005-02-21 02:05 · Score: 5, Informative

"(between 800 and 900 km in size and 45 km deep) "

According to TFA the depth is 45 METERS deep, not 45 KILOMETERS. ;)

There is quite a difference between the two... :)
Re:wow by qw(name) · 2005-02-21 02:09 · Score: 5, Informative

The /. descript is little misleading. From the article:
A frozen sea, surviving as blocks of pack ice, may lie just beneath the surface of Mars...
Sea? by Anonymous Coward · 2005-02-21 02:13 · Score: 5, Informative

Here's the title of the article:

'Pack ice' suggests frozen sea on Mars

Here's the summary of the ./ posting:

...that a large sea of frozen ice (between 800 and 900 km in size and 45 km deep) has been discovered...

Do ./ poster even RTFA?
Mirror to the PDF. by tetrahedrassface · 2005-02-21 03:04 · Score: 5, Informative

Here is a mirror to the PDF.
http://209.235.176.54/1741.pdf
Its temp webspace for www.foxcheck.org. Have fun. And we want to live in peace with our /. overlords!
Re:How is it possible by tetrahedrassface · 2005-02-21 03:21 · Score: 5, Informative

Sublimation lag quite simply
In other words the sae was frozen and had a lot sediments in it. As the surface evaporated the sediments were left on top. The sediments in conjunction with vlocanic ash effectively inusulates the sea underneath it.
Its kinda like an aquifer, except that in this case the aquifer is frozen!
Re:A Little More Info... by Dan+East · 2005-02-21 04:27 · Score: 5, Informative

I assume they said that because the article states that any water that close to the equator should have melted by now, unless it was covered by some insulating material such as volcanic ash.

However there is an advantage to finding ice near the equator. If we wish to launch spacecraft from Mars the equator would be the best launching point, for the same reason we launch spacecraft from Earth as close to the equator as possible.

The water could be a potential source of fuel, thus it (assuming it is water) lying close to the equator would be advantageous for that reason.

Dan East

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Better known as 318230.