Ancient Channels

Peek under Mars' Surface reveals Ancient Channels
By Richard Stenger, CNN News, March 10, 2000

Peering under the surface of Mars with new laser-assisted techniques, NASA scientists have uncovered evidence of wide, ancient channels that could have formed from the flow of enormous volumes of water, the space agency announced Friday. NASA also unveiled dramaticvideo simulations of the surface of the red planet, taking viewers on a breathtaking ride over features like the Valles Marineris, a chasm as long as the United States, and the north polar cap, which holds as much water as the Great Lakes. "It's just a spectacular, otherworldly landscape," NASA scientist Jim Garvin told CNN. "We are seeing the real Mars, making science fiction science fact."

When Mars was young, enormous water flows could have created the extensive underground channels revealed in images of the martian interior derived from Mars Global Surveyor data, NASA researchers said. "It's like seeing the human body with an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Image). Without drilling into the surface, we can see beneath what we see from space," said Garvin, who works for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The new data from the orbiter suggest that at some point in the planet's history, the flat northern lowlands suffered blistering heat, experienced rapid cooling, then drowned under floods that formed an ocean.

The planet "was in a tremendous state of upheaval," Garvin said. Channels beneath the northern lowlands could have flowed from Valles Marineris and the Chryse and Kasei Valles regions, NASA scientists said. The researchers used gravity and elevation measurements from MGS to spot the features, about 125 miles (200 km) wide and more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) long. Water flowing on the surface or underground in channels and later buried by sediments could explain the appearance of the features. Their large size suggests that part or parts of the northern lowlands rapidly filled with water. Cutaway of the martian interior generated from data gathered by Mars Global Surveyor. Blues indicate thin areas of crust, while reds and whites indicate thicker areas. The prospect of large amounts of past water excites planetary scientists, who wonder if the red planet ever was alive. "The ancient water courses, we believe, may have flowed into a possible ocean, a harbinger of a time in Mars' past that could have had life," Garvin said.