The Underground Lakes on Mars.
                     The Underground Lakes on 
Mars
Introduction
• Liquid water is refreshingly abundant on 
moons in the outer solar system, but it 
has proven surprisingly tough to find in 
reliable quantities on Mars until now.
Source: www.nationalgeographic.com
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Radar scans of the red planet 
• Radar scans of the red planet suggest that 
a stable reservoir of salty, liquid water 
measuring some 12 miles across lies 
nearly a mile beneath the planet’s south 
pole.
Source: www.nationalgeographic.com
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Mars’s ancient oceans
• If confirmed, the buried pocket of water 
could answer a few questions about where 
Mars’s ancient oceans went, as well as 
provide a resource for future human 
settlements.
Source: www.nationalgeographic.com
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Frozen Time Capsule
• The radar signals originally interpreted as 
liquid water were found in a region of 
Mars known as the South Polar Layered 
Deposits, named for the alternating layers 
of water ice, dry ice (frozen carbon 
dioxide), and dust that have settled there 
over millions of years.
Source: mars.nasa.gov
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Radio waves 
• Radio waves lose energy when they pass 
through material in the subsurface; as 
they reflect back to the spacecraft, they 
usually have a weaker signal. 
• But in some cases, signals returning from 
this region’s subsurface were brighter 
than those at the surface. 
Source: mars.nasa.gov
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Unexpected ‘Lakes’
• The analysis revealed dozens of additional 
bright radar reflections over a far greater 
range of area and depth than ever before. 
• In some places, they were less than a mile 
from the surface, where temperatures are 
estimated to be minus 81 degrees 
Fahrenheit.
Source: mars.nasa.gov
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Halophiles
• The lakes' salinity is of particular 
relevance to the life question. Terrestrial 
microbes that thrive in very salty 
conditions are known as halophiles. 
• But studies have shown that bugs can 
tolerate more extreme salinities when 
temperatures are higher, and colder 
temperatures when salinity is lower.
Source: mars.nasa.gov
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Existence of Life at Mars
• There is ongoing research into whether 
life could survive in conditions like those 
in the lakes on Mars. 
• Doctors said: "Salt in very high 
concentrations is not very friendly to life."
Source: mars.nasa.gov
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Criticism on Research Paper
• There had been criticisms of the 2018 
paper, with some researchers proposing 
that the main lake could be the result of 
an exceptional situation, such as the 
presence of a volcano under the polar cap 
heating ice from below.
Source: mars.nasa.gov
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