Mars Deposits may have captured Water and life signs:

(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL/Brown Univ)

Light-coloured deposits (left and forefront) on the flank of an ancient volcano on the Red Planet might act like a Martian version of amber, preserving any life present at the site 3.7 billion years ago for future study.

The deposits contain the mineral hydrated silica, according to observations made by a spectrometer on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The mineral is transported and then concentrated by hot water or steam, suggesting the deposits were laid down in what was once a hydrothermal environment.

Groundwater may have been heated by magma from the erupting volcano and vented to the surface as steam, says John Mustard of Brown University in Rhode Island, a member of the team that identified the mineral.
"The heat and water required to create this deposit probably made this a habitable zone," says team leader John Skok of Brown.


The team says the mineral could record evidence of any life that may have existed when the deposits formed about 3.7 billion years ago. "Silica is a nice little coffin-making device," Mustard told New Scientist. "As it precipitates out, it coats things. If there was biological material, it could be wrapped up in a silica coating, like a jelly bean."

Located in the Syrtis Major volcanic region around Mars's equator, the deposits are not the first to be found on Mars. In 2007, NASA's Spirit rover detected hydrated silica in a volcanic region inside Gusev Crater.

But Spirit's deposits were found beneath a layer of soil, and Mustard says it is not entirely clear how they formed. "Spirit detected the deposits but not the context," says Mustard. "Our observations show unbelievably well the context – it is a volcano. We know where the heat source is."

Rover scientist Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, concedes the point. "The geological provenance is a little less certain than if you're seeing [the silica] on the side of a volcano."