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Caves on Mars?

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the little-green-cavemen dept.

RockDoctor writes "The BBC is reporting that the photo-surveying of Mars has revealed seven suspected cave entrances in the Arsia Mons volcanic area. This has been hinted at before — long sinuous channels in the same region have been interpreted as collapsed 'lava tube' caves — but the scale of the suggested entrances (sheer drops of 80 to 130m from the surrounding surface) makes my troglodytic hands twitch for my abseiling gear."

17 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. Bin Laden? by Gothmolly · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe THATS where he's been hiding!

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  2. Ob. Futurama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Zapp: Behold...the Great Stone Face of Mars. The only known entrance to the Martian reservation.
    Leela: What about the Great Stone Ass of Mars?
    Zapp: Well, yeah, but it's way over the other side of the planet.

  3. news? by wileyAU · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is this really news? To be completely honest, it had never occurred to me that there wouldn't be caves on Mars.

    1. Re:news? by onion2k · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It depends on the caves really. Fracture caves or lava tubes would certainly be expected because they're formed by volcanic and tectonic movements. If Mars didn't have that then something very odd would be going on. Solutional cave formations are less of a certainty though. These are the sorts of caves formed by water absorbing CO2 during rainfall, turning to carbonic acid, and dissolving certain sorts of rock. For them to exist you need both water and CO2 obviously, and specific mineral deposits to desolve. Their existence could tell us more about the chemical makeup of the martian surface.

      Plus, caves would be a likely place for microbes to continue to thrive. Caves on Earth of full of life.

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    2. Re:news? by rmadmin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      To some of us, it is news. To be completely honest, it had never occurred to me that there would be caves on Mars.

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      Can all fish swim?
    3. Re:news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah, it's no big deal... I've been there and there not all that great... I only saw a couple of paintings and they that aren't all that good...

    4. Re:news? by phrostie · · Score: 5, Interesting

      although water formed caves would be exciting from a geological standpoint, i like the lava tubes theory.
      a lava tube would have the possibility of being sealed and an atificial atmosphere created for habitation.
      It's be safer than an inflatable structure on the surface.

    5. Re:news? by Diamonddavej · · Score: 3, Informative

      Caves can form in rocks other then limestone, such as gypsum - CaSO4.6H2O. In this case water simply dissolves the gypsum, which is slightly soluble in water irrespective of CO2 content. Gypsum is common evaporite mineral on Mars and can form pure deposits e.g. Pollack Crater has gypsum on its floor, it looks like Karst to me.

    6. Re:news? by ozbird · · Score: 3, Interesting

      a lava tube would have the possibility of being sealed and an atificial atmosphere created for habitation.

      Given that lava tubes appear to be prime habitat for any potential life on Mars, pumping one full of toxic oxygen raises a few ethical issues.

  4. Here's What They'll Find Inside... by cybrpnk2 · · Score: 3, Funny

    OF COURSE there's caves on the Red Planet. Doesn't anybody read Chapter 8 of The Warlord of Mars anymore?.

  5. The actual article's URL by simonbp · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's the actual article's URL; the also had some supporting papers at LPSC that show up at ADS...

    http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bi bcode=2007LPI....38.1371C&db_key=AST&data_type=HTM L&format=&high=44e3b245f913347

    Simon ;)

  6. Spacemen become Cavemen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    FTA:
    The authors say that the possible discovery of caves on the Red Planet is significant.

    The caves may be the only natural structures capable of protecting primitive life forms from micrometeoroids, UV radiation, solar flares and high energy particles that bombard the planet's surface.

    Like maybe Earthlings?

  7. Re:Question for the Space Anthropologists by Walt+Dismal · · Score: 4, Funny
    Ask Aunt Anthro

    Dear Aunt Anthro, are there cave-martians?

    Sincerely, Timmy in Ohio (age 8)

    Dear Timmy;

    I want to encourage your interest in science! Yes, there are cave-martians. They have huge fangs and many clawed tentacles. They drool stinky green ichor and crawl like nothing you've ever seen before. They are known for hiding in dark closets and under beds. Also, they have flying saucers and know where Ohio is.

  8. Re:I keep my... by cypherz · · Score: 3, Funny

    Might have been funny if you had spelled "they're" correctly.

    their != they're

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  9. Re:I keep my... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    "If their so smart they can find they are own way out."

    Yeah, your way makes SO much more sense. Good job flaming someone when you can't do it right yourself.

  10. Re:Be very carfull... by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Caves can be dangerous [link].

    I almost clicked, and then realized this topic may be a perfect setup phrase for a goatse trick. I don't volunteer to check it.

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  11. Here is the original article by mbone · · Score: 4, Informative

    An extended abstract from the Lunar Planetary Science Conference :

    http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2007/pdf/1371 .pdf