If we took all the water on Earth and in Earth's crust, and scaled it proportionally to Mars' size and mass, this global layer of water would be about 1,400 meters (4,593 feet) thick on Mars. In short, Mars may have once held Earth-like volumes of water. Perhaps less, or ...
"We knew that the liquid water being buried deep in the subsurface was one possible solution to the question of where Mars' ancient liquid surface water went," Manga said. "On Earth we find microbial life deep underground where rocks are saturated with water and there is an energy source."...
“We thought that tubeworm larvae might disperse through these spaces, being drawn in with cold water entering the Earth’s crust through cracks in the rocks. This water mixes underground with hot vent fluids and then is expelled elsewhere, taking the lar...
(This is the same technique that has helped scientists find water beneath large glaciers here on Earth.) More from Mars Elon Musk Says Settlers Will Likely Die on Mars Orosei and his team studied 134 observations collected by MARSIS between 2012 and 2019. (One of the reasons the 2018 ...
Volcanoes are typically found near the borders of tectonic plates, born from clashes between those giant slabs of rock as they drift on top of the mantle layer between Earth’s core and crust. Classic examples of such volcanoes are those that make up the so-called Ring of Fire on the...
The cores recovered by the expedition—led by the International Ocean Discovery Program—originate in Earth’smantle, the planet’s largest layer. Made of mostly solid rock, the mantle is typically inaccessible, as it sits between the crust and core. But ...
A Canary Islands volcano pushed rivers of molten lava through the earth. Now scientists and explorers trek through the cooling underground, looking for insights into life on this planet—and perhaps on others.
known for having developed underwater submarines for studying ocean currents. In the Challenger Deep, he and Lt. Don Walsh of the United States Navy were the first people to explore the deepest part of the world's ocean, and the deepest location on the surface of Earth's crust, t...
Living creatures produce most of the methane on Earth. But scientists haven’t found convincing signs of current or ancient life on Mars, and thus didn’t expect to find methane there. Yet, the portable chemistry lab aboard Curiosity, known as SAM, or Sample Analysis at Mars, has continually...
Interestingly, the newly found nursery, shown in the June 2023 images below, is near a low-temperaturehydrothermal vent, a place where hot or warm mineral-rich seawater flows from Earth's crust. This suggests some octopus species intentionally brood their eggs around these vents. (Another octopus...