Study: Martian Surface Water Was Absorbed by Planet's Crust

According to a new study published in the journal Nature, the Sun may not have evaporated away all of the Martian surface water after all; instead, Mars’ water was absorbed by the planet’s crust over time, leaving its surface essentially dry.

This artist’s concept depicts the dry environment seen at Mars today versus the early Martian environment. Image credit: Simon Fraser University.

“The public’s infatuation with finding life on Mars stems from the many characteristics both Earth and Mars share,” said study co-author Dr. Brendan Dyck, from the Simon Fraser University in Canada and the University of Cambridge in the UK.

“Early on, both planets had similar potential to sustain life, but as time evolved, Mars lost its surface water along with its potential to sustain complex multicellular life.”

In the study, Dr. Dyck and colleagues calculated the volume of water that could be held in the minerals that make up the Martian crust.

By modeling the reactions of water with the crusts of early Earth and Mars, they found that the Martian crust can hold more than twice the amount of water as Earth, effectively drying out the surface of Mars.

The team’s findings suggest that almost 1,000 feet (300 m) of Martian surface water could have been absorbed into the planet’s crust and is now locked-up in microscopic mineral structures.

“It would be very difficult to sustain life as we know it on Mars even if surface water existed on the planet for a couple million years,” the researchers said.

“Owing to the long time-scales of evolution, surface water would have to exist for billions of years before the evolution of complex multi-cellular life could take place.”

“Our study shows that the composition of a rocky planet’s crust plays an important part in determining whether water will remain on a planet’s surface over deep time.”

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Jon Wade et al. 2017. The divergent fates of primitive hydrospheric water on Earth and Mars. Nature 552, 391-394; doi: 10.1038/nature25031

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