Caves could reveal secrets of life on Mars
Released: 10/19/2009 10:00:00 AM
Chris Okubo
U.S. Geological Survey
Virtual spelunking” finds possible cave system in Martian volcano flows
A series of depressions discovered on Mars could be entrances to a cave system that might provide shelter for future Mars missions or shed light on whether microbial life forms have ever existed on the “Red Planet.”
Glen Cushing, a physicist with the US Geological Survey, discovered the series of “collapse depressions” in extinct lava flows from a Martian volcano. Cushing describes his discovery as a collection of “long grooves” in the surface with distinctive depressions that appear to be skylight entrances into tunnel-like structures. Some of the grooves are more than 100 kilometers long and could easily extend much further and deeper beneath the surface. Some of the grooves are about 50 to 60 meters wide and are curvy and meandering while others are more linear and 2-3 times wider, suggesting that more than one formation mechanism may have been operating.
Read on: http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2330
original from cavechat.org