Mars Mission
01- Canals
02- Mariners
03- Riverbeds
04- Sub-surface Ice
05- Fleet
06- Martian Ice
07- Slope Streaks
08- Water Found
09- Phyllocian Era
10- Theikian Era
11- Siderikan Era
12- Martian Regions
13- Obliquity
14- Martian Tectonics
15- Topographic Morph
16- Crustal Magnetism
17- Original Impact
18- Polar Regions
19- Hydrated Minerals
20- Theikian Warming
21- New Phoenix Snow
22- Equatorial Glaciers
23- Ancient Ice
24- Continental Snow Drift

22 - Equatorial Glaciers

Theikian glaciers

 

Phoenix also detected calcium carbonate, a chief component of limestone rock, which, like the phyllosilicates that characterise the Phyllocian era, can only form in the presence of liquid water. The orbiters have found such minerals in other parts of Mars, but in regions that have clear evidence of former flowing water. The Phoenix landing site is an open plain without obvious features carved by flowing water. This suggests that ice melted in-situ and stayed in that area.

Glacial deposits near the equator on Mars are believed to be remnants of ancient snow. Ice -rich landforms and scattered boulders appear to have been caused by glaciers between 350,000 years to 4 million years ago, the end of the Theikian Era.

   
  Alan Lambert © 2009