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Frozen sea reported below Mars surface

A team of European scientists has announced a huge, frozen sea lies just below the surface of Mars. Their assessment is based on pictures taken by Mars Express spacecraft of the planet’s near-equatorial Elysium region that show plated and rutted features across an area 800 by 900 km.

Large reserves of water-ice are known to be held at the poles on Mars but if this discovery is confirmed by follow-up observations, it would be a first for a region at such a low latitude.

The water that formed the sea in the southern Elysium, five degree north of the equator, appears to have originated beneath the surface of Mars, erupting from a series of fractures known as the Cerberus Fossae.

Further data is now required to support the initial observations but already other scientists think the interpretation is reasonable.

posted by: kyawoo at 20:51 | link | comments |
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