Vast stores of water ice surround Martian equator

19:30 20 November 2008 by Rachel Courtland

Ice glaciers hundreds of metres deep are lurking just underneath the Martian surface around the planet's mid-latitudes, new radar measurements suggest.

The discovery represents the largest cache of ice yet found beyond Mars's polar regions and bolsters the case that the planet's tilt changes periodically. The ice could also be an ideal place to study the ancient Martian climate and look for evidence of life.

The glaciers, found at latitudes between 30 and 60° in both the northern and southern hemispheres, sit underneath fields of rocky debris. The appearance of the landscape suggests the debris flowed from hills lying up to 20 kilometres away.

Mars researchers have debated the origins of these rocky fields, which are called 'lobate debris aprons.' Some suspected that small particles of ice condensed from atmospheric water vapour between rocks and dust; this ice could lubricate the material, allowing it to flow down slopes. Others suggested the rocky aprons actually hid large glaciers.

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