Evidence of Past Glaciation Found on Mars

October 1, 2014 – The date today reinforces that we are well into autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere of our planet and it shouldn’t be a surprise then that the words “glacier” and “ice” are starting to appear in some headlines. The latest, however, are not of this world but our neighbour Mars.

In the latest release of The Geological Society of America, a team from Bryn Mawr College and the Freie Universitaet Berlin have identified evidence of past glaciers in Mars’ “Grand Canyon,” the Valles Marineris (viewed from the ESA Mars Express in the image below).

The evidence is the presence of natural occurring Jarosite, a mixed sulfate mineral. Often found in mining waste, synthetic Jarosite forms in sulfate-rich acid conditions where water is present. But Jarosite also is found here on Earth in natural occurrence on the margins of glaciers as well as in hot thermal vents and springs. In association with ice the mineral can be found on the Norwegian island of Svalbard where it forms as a result of acid-ice interactions.

On Mars researchers found the mineral approximately halfway up the walls of Valles Marineris, some 4.8 kilometers (3 miles) high in the western reaches of the canyon. Its presence there suggests a similar mechanism to that found on Svalbard here on Earth.

This is not the only incident where Jarosite (an Earth-based sample seen below) has been discovered on the Red Planet. The Opportunity rover identified the mineral at Eagle Crater back in 2004. It was found in proximity to the spherical hematite-rich concretions that NASA called Martian blueberries.

Related articles across the web

• Mars Ripe for ‘Cold Springs’ Akin to Canadian Arctic
• Glaciers may have Flown through Valles Marineris, the Grand Canyon of Mars