According to the news portal Planet-today.ru, when mentioning ice on Mars, most people think of the polar caps – areas that can be seen from Earth through telescopes and satellites. However, access to these areas is difficult, especially when strict measures are taken to prevent biological contamination during scientific expeditions.
Scientists have long sought to discover ice reserves near the equator to make them more accessible to future explorers. In the planet's mid-latitudes, glacier-like areas are observed, hidden under a thick layer of dust and debris. Do they contain significant amounts of water near where the first Martian colonists might one day emerge? The answer is maybe – according to a new study by MA de Pablo and team, published in the journal *Icarus*.
The deciding factor may be the small volcanic island in Antarctica – Deception Island. This is a volcanic complex that, after a series of eruptions in the 1960s and 1970s, was covered in ash, covering the surrounding glaciers. Researchers suggest that there is a similar object on Mars – the Hekates Tolus volcano, which has a similar history to the case in Antarctica.
Hekates Tolus is an ancient shield formation on Mars, similar to the Deception Island volcano. Considering that in Antarctica there is ice under the rubble, it can be assumed that similar structures are also present under the rubble around Hekates Tolus.
On the Red Planet there are clear signs of not just scattered rocks or their mixture with shallow ice, but of an actual ice sheet. First of all, the presence of cracks. Every geologist knows how dangerous they are on Earth, but the main difference between the cracks on Deception Island is that they are visible from orbit, especially near the so-called “support wall” – sheer, close to the vertical rocks that are the glacier's highest point. Similar distinct cracks were observed on Hekates Tolus, and their clarity suggested that beneath the surface debris there was not only rock but also an active ice mass. It is these cracks that show the continuous movement of a powerful, heart-shaped ice core below the surface of the volcanic debris.
