Bramson, a planetary scientist at the LPL, and her colleagues, looked at an unusual crater in the Arcadia Planitia region of Mars, located in the mid-latitudes around the same region as the US-Canadian border on Earth. Scientists expect the ice is likely the result of weather from tens of millions of years ago, an Earth-like era during either the Paleogene of Neogene ages. Life may even subsist in some form today deep beneath the Martian surface, some scientists believe.While Mars has visible, gleaming icecaps on its poles, scientists are starting to note a pattern of subterranean ice forming under the surface between those polar icecaps.

Because there is compelling evidence that the now cold and dry planet was once warm and wet, complete with lakes, rivers, and seas, uncovering the histories and climates of Mars’ various regions could be key to finding evidence it once hosted microbial life.

For several years, the quantity of ice have shifted dramatically as a result of Mars’ unstable axis of rotation. The image, snapped on February 25, captures a number of impressive features present on the surface of the Red Planet, including the Martian south pole, an enormous basin and two vast channels. Such terraces can type when layers of various supplies, resembling filth, ice or rock, lie beneath a planet’s floor.

“The result’s terracing on the interface between the weaker and stronger supplies”, Bramson. They conduct fieldwork on all continents around the world. They subsequent used the orbiter’s Shallow Radar, or SHARAD, instrument to beam radar pulses at Mars, which helped them decide the composition of the layers making up the terraces.

“Knowing where the ice is and how thick it is can tell you about Mars’ past climates” said associate professor and study co-author Shane Byrne in a statement. “This may be like somebody in Kansas digging of their yard and discovering ice as thick as a 13-story constructing that covers an space the dimensions of Texas and California mixed”, Bramson stated.

Experts already knew about the vast amounts of ice beneath the planet’s surface at high latitudes around the poles, but they recently started discovering water ice hidden in the middle and lower latitudes.

Planetary scientist Ali Bramson of the University of Arizona at Tucson took part in the study and is lead author in an article documenting it, published in the August 26 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.