
Mark Jellinek of the University of British Columbia appears to be like to the Devon ice cap in a handout picture, standing on rocks that are extra than a million several years aged.The deep valleys scarred into the area of Mars beneath thick sheets of ice demonstrate that the “red earth” after mirrored the Canadian Higher Arctic, states a new examine.
Picture Credit rating: THE CANADIAN Push/HO-Anna Grau Galofre



August 04, 2020 – 9:01 PM



VANCOUVER – The deep valleys scarred into the surface area of Mars below thick sheets of ice display that the earth at the time mirrored the Canadian Substantial Arctic, suggests a new review.

Published Monday in the journal Mother nature Geoscience, the research claims numerous of the valley networks carved into the surface area of Mars were being fashioned by h2o melting beneath glacial ice. It suggests there were less no cost-flowing rivers than formerly assumed.

Study creator Anna Grau Galofre, a former University of British Columbia PhD university student in the division of Earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences, stated about 3.5 billion yrs in the past the Martian surface area seemed like the surface area of Canada 20,000 decades back.

“We are talking about a world which is painted like a brother of Earth,” she reported.

Grau Galofre and her crew compared area info of Mars with that of Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic.

The review describes Devon Island as a cold, dry, polar desert, where by the glaciers and their retreat imitate what took location on Mars billions of many years in the past.

“Imagine ice sheets that are kilometres thick, truly, seriously thick,” she said.

“If you ended up to just lift the ice sheet and see underneath, you would see a landscape. And this landscape is constituted of several distinct channels, expanded pathways like the plumbing of the ice.”

What this tells scientists is that when there may well have been a heat and wet Mars on which there was rainfall, it can be far additional most likely that the planet’s area resembled that of the Canadian Arctic, she claimed.


“It is like a time evolution of the weather that we are seeking at in this article. There were the warm and damp periods that talked about the oceans. And there ended up the cold and icy intervals.”

This could suggest that the local climate on Mars possibly transformed gradually through time from a cooler to a hotter interval, or the other way all-around, she mentioned.

The new findings provides up an “fascinating dialogue stage” about everyday living on Mars, Grau Galofre mentioned.

“That is essentially not a poor matter in conditions of an atmosphere to sustain lifestyle.”

Lake Vostok on Antarctica is covered by a thick sheet of ice but has loads of existence, these kinds of as germs, she stated.

“And they have been there for a extensive time, up to a million a long time, rather significantly isolated by the ice sheet.”

The ice assures the creatures get drinking water and also provides a steady atmosphere, especially on a world like Mars, which can have searing days and freezing nights, explained Grau Galofre.

The ice sheet also safeguards life from photo voltaic radiation, she extra.

The study could be expanded to contain the Jezero Crater, where by NASA’s Perseverance is scheduled to land on Mars for the reason that it may perhaps have after harboured lifestyle, she reported.

Mars is the 1st and apparent area to commence seeking for lifestyle due to the fact it still has northern and southern ice caps, as perfectly as a small fraction of h2o in the atmosphere, Grau Galofre mentioned.

Proof of drinking water reveals there is life or there was a time when lifestyle existed, she reported.

“That is a huge action in phrases of making an attempt to reply this query — exactly where are we coming from and are we on your own in the universe,” Grau Galofre explained.

“I believe by locating life someplace else in the universe we can also answer a ton about what is life and what are we carrying out in this article.”

This report by The Canadian Push was very first printed Aug. 4, 2020.



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