Explosive bursts of methane helped ancient Mars keep liquid water flowing, study finds

In a drying time, Mars may have been kept warm enough for liquid water to remain stable on the surface thanks to explosive bursts of methane gas, a new study finds.

The simulations, described in the journal Nature Geoscience, could explain how Mars managed to sustain a series of lakes in a climate that at first glance seems too cold and arid to have done so.

Since landing on the Red Planet in August 2012, NASA’s rover Curiosity has discovered that 96-mile-wide Gale Crater held a series of lakes around 3.5 billion years ago. The rocks it has drilled and X-rayed and lasered have also revealed environments that would have been potentially habitable for Earth-like life.

Keep in mind, however, that Mars’ wettest period was likely the first billion years of its 4.6-billion-year life, the Noachian period, when it had a thicker atmosphere that would have been better able to keep liquid water stable on the planet’s surface.

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http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-mars-methane-tilt-20171002-story.html