We all know you’ve got heard of rocks earlier than, and you’ve got probably heard of glaciers. However do you know that rock glaciers exist? And never solely right here on Earth — they’re additionally on Mars.
We all know little or no about Mars rock glaciers, however scientists do suspect that they could maintain vital quantities of water, which may help future human exploration and settlement on the Red Planet. Thus, a workforce of researchers from the College of Arizona has got down to research their Earth-based brethren so as higher perceive this intriguing geological formation.
A rock glacier is just like a conventional ice glacier, but it surely’s crammed with far bigger portions of rocks and sand. That particles is often picked up when ice glaciers soften and refreeze on the base of mountains, the place that rocky particles typically gathers. Due to their composition, rock glaciers are sometimes a lot smaller than ice glaciers, although they each transfer very slowly over time.
Now if Martian rock glaciers are similar to these on Earth, they could maintain water ice that might be harvested by future Mars explorers. “They’re … extra accessible than polar ice as a result of spacecraft would not have to vary their orbits as a lot as they might in the event that they had been to land on a pole, which requires much more gas to achieve,” Tyler Meng, a doctoral scholar finding out planetary science and geoscience on the College of Arizona who’s taking part within the analysis, said in a statement (opens in new tab).
To review rock glaciers right here on Earth, the researchers traveled to 4 rock glaciers in Colorado, Wyoming, and Alaska, mapping them in three dimensions with radar gear. “Within the course of, we made essentially the most exact estimates of rock glacier geometry and composition up to now,” Meng stated. That knowledge can be utilized to check the water funds in these mountain areas, as a result of the glaciers function reservoirs — which they hopefully do on Mars, too.
“Our objective is to make use of these rock glaciers on Earth as an analog for processes on Mars,” stated Meng. “By mapping the patterns of particles thickness on Earth, we’re making an attempt to grasp how that particles thickness may range on Mars. Additionally, by studying in regards to the variations in move parameters between clear ice and debris-rich ice, that can assist simulations for the Martian case as effectively.”
Subsequent up for the workforce: extra measuring. However this time they will not solely be utilizing radar gear, but additionally drones — a method that might maybe one day be used on Mars with a car like NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, which has been flying sorties as a part of the Perseverance rover mission for over a yr.
A research based mostly on the workforce’s analysis was printed within the Journal of Glaciology on Oct. 21.
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