Cradle for Life? Ancient Mars Likely Had Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents

By Samantha Mathewson, Space.com Contributor | October 11, 2017 07:51am ET


Ancient Mars may have harbored deep-sea hydrothermal vents, the same type of environment where many scientists think life on Earth got its start, a recent study suggests.

Observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) show evidence of ancient sea-floor hydrothermal deposits within the Eridania basin — a region in the southern hemisphere where some of the Red Planet's most ancient crust is exposed.

The deposits are believed to have formed due to volcanic activity in the planet's crust at the bottom of the basin. Study team members therefore think that hot, mineral-laden water pumped directly into the ancient Martian sea, which probably held 10 times more water than all of North America's Great Lakes combined, NASA officials said. [The Search for Life on Mars (A Photo Timeline)]

"Even if we never find evidence that there's been life on Mars, this site can tell us about the type of environment where life may have begun on Earth," co-author Paul Niles, a planetary scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a statement. "Volcanic activity combined with standing water provided conditions that were likely similar to conditions that existed on Earth at about the same time — when early life was evolving here."

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