Ancient volcanic lake on Mars may have hosted microbial life

Los Angeles Times : Fan-shaped deposits on the sides of a Martian volcano may have been formed by a glacier, and the combination of volcanic heat and glacier meltwater could have created an environment conducive to life in Mars’s recent past, according to a study published in the journal Icarus. After studying data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, researchers at Brown University say that the scarring visible on the northwest side of Mars’s Arsia Mons volcano resembles that left by glaciers on Earth. In addition, judging from the different shapes of lava left on the surface, the researchers have concluded that those landforms were created by lava flowing under a high confining pressure, such as that exerted by the weight of a glacier. Such volcano–ice interactions could have formed subglacial lakes where microbial life could have thrived, as has recently been observed in subglacial lakes under Antarctica. Further study will be needed to determine how long such conditions lasted on Mars and whether dormant microbes could still exist there.