ScienceDaily (Mar. 17, 2008) — Promethei Planum, an area seasonally covered with a more than 3500 m thick layer of ice in the martian south polar region, was the subject of the High Resolution Stereo Camera’s focus on 22 September 2005 as Mars Express was in orbit above the Red Planet.

Promethei Planum lies at approximately 76° south and 105° east on the Red Planet. The image data acquired in the region has a ground resolution of approximately 40 m/pixel.

An impact crater is approximately 100 km wide and 800 m deep is visible and the crater’s interior is partly covered in ice.  

In the area are structures that may have been created by basaltic lava flow from a volcano. This area is covered in ice. The dark dunes towards the bottom of the image are most likely made up of dust originating from this lava flow or volcanic ash.

A broad sheet of ice, which is an extension of the south polar ice cap is located south of the lava flow, to the left in the (nadir) image. The steep flanks clearly show white, clean ice. The thickness of the ice is between 900 and 1100 m.

Latest results from the Mars Advanced Radar for Ionosphere and Subsurface Sounding (MARSIS) onboard Mars Express have revealed that the thickness of this extension of the south polar ice cap exceeds 3500 m. The total amount of water ice contained at both the south and north poles of Mars makes up the largest water reservoir on the planet today.

If polar ice melted, the entire surface of the planet would be covered by an ocean 11-m deep.

enlarge

Promethei Planum, an area seasonally covered with a layer of ice more than 3500 m thick layer of ice in the martian south polar region. (Credit: ESA/ DLR/ FU Berlin (G. Neukum))

Related Stories

Water At Martian South Pole (Mar. 19, 2004) — Astronomers have known for years that Mars possessed polar ice caps, but early attempts at chemical analysis suggested only that the northern cap could be composed of water ice, and the southern cap ...  > read more

Mars' South Pole Ice Deep And Wide (Mar. 16, 2007) — New measurements of Mars' south polar region indicate extensive frozen water. The polar region contains enough frozen water to cover the whole planet in a liquid layer approximately 11 meters (36 ...  > read more

Evidence Of Climate Change, Icy Region Observed On Mars (July 27, 2001) — New images of the surface of Mars provide the first direct evidence that the climate of Mars changed during the last 100,000 years, much more recently than the hundreds of millions of years ...  > read more

Origin Of Perennial Water-ice At South Pole Of Mars (July 16, 2007) — Thanks to data from ESA's Mars Express mission, combined with models of the Martian climate, scientists can now suggest how the orbit of Mars around the sun affects the deposition of water-ice at the ...  > read more

Search ScienceDaily

Discovering A New Earth 430 Light Years Away