Originally published February 23 2006
Researchers study Mars glaciers
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Researchers say glaciers, much like those found in certain parts of the Earth, may have played a significant role in shaping the surface of Mars.
Mysterious debris fields found far from the poles on Mars are made by glaciers, which may have been formed just like glaciers are on Earth.
Researchers say the glaciers would have resembled those found on Earth in places such as Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa or the Andean peaks in South America.
Brown University planetary geologist James Head and colleagues say the glaciers probably formed when Mars was tilted on its side 5 million years ago.
Researchers were intrigued when spacecraft data showed curious rock-strewn deposits at the foot of some Martian volcanoes and mountains close to the equator.
These scraped-up piles of rock and sand in certain valleys and along the western flanks of the three giant volcanoes look like what is left behind by a moving glacier on Earth.
The team of US and French researchers ran climate simulations that suggest glaciers could have formed when the Sun heated up the poles, sending snow there into the atmosphere and allowing it to fall elsewhere on the planet.
The Sun's rays could vaporize the snow in a process known as sublimation, also seen here on Earth.
Winds would carry the water vapor south, up and over the soaring slopes of the Tharsis Montes volcanoes and the giant Olympus Mons volcano.
The vapor would cool and condense into snow, which would eventually harden into an icy glacier.
"The findings are important because they tell us that Mars has experienced big climate changes in the past, the kinds of climate change that led to the Great Ice Age here on Earth," Mr Head said.
"The findings are also interesting because this precipitation pattern may have left pockets of ice scattered across Mars.
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