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Ancient habitable lake found on Mars |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Saturday, 08 March 2008
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 Scientists analyzing imagery from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have discovered that 96-mile wide Holden Crater may have held water for thousands of years. The crater's rim has a massive breach in its side and the basin is scoured in a way that mimics that of running water here on Earth. Additionally, the MRO's HiRISE camera has detected signs of minerals that can only be formed in the presense of water.
While no signs of former life have been discovered yet, locations like Holden Crater hole the highest chances of having had life-forming conditions. The Mars Science Laboratory, set for launch next year, has Holden Crater on its short list of landing locations.
The crater itself is inside an even larger impact basin. The impact that formed Holden blasted chunks of Martian rock 50 meters wide into the air, creating what's called a megabreccia layer on the surface. On Earth, breccia is rock formed by the cementation of angular rocks into a solid layer. Water then flowed over the site, burying the megabreccia under silt and clay.
All that could have stayed buried, if not for one tragic day. The Holden Crater rim crumbled, unleashing a torrent of 960 cubic miles of water, the equivalent of emptying Lakes Huron and Erie. The resulting flood of water washed away much of the silt deposites on to of the clay layer, leaving behind a field strewn with massive football-field sized bolders.
Like the rest of Mars, it is believed that the wet period of Holden Crater occurred during the planet's earilest history. Any water flows during the intervening hundreds of millions of years may have only been the result of catastrophic impacts.
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"Smooth as an android's bottom, eh, Data?"
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