Frozen Sea Near Martian Equator Size of Lake Michigan

"The most interesting thing is that we might find life there (in frozen sea) because if you look at the source of the water, which has filled a huge basin, it comes out of cracks in the ground. The indication that there are warm, wet places beneath the surface of Mars as recently as 5 million years ago to me is good evidence that life might have developed on Mars."

- John Murray, Ph.D., Open University, England

Elysium Planitia lies near the Martian equator. Map © 1998 by National Geographic Society.

ESA Mars Express image of extensive fields of large fractured ice covered by red lava ash at the Cerberus Fossae fissures in eastern Elysium Planitia. Photograph © 2005 G. Neukum, ESA/D_R/FUBerlin.

February 22, 2005 Noordwijk, The Netherlands - On Earth, pack ice is a floating mass of ice formed from seawater in the Earth's polar regions. Pack ice expands during winter to cover about 5 percent of the northern oceans and 8 percent of the southern oceans. When melting occurs in spring and summer, the margins of the pack ice retreat.

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