The Red Planet had water—in the form of a hydrothermal system—4.45 billion years ago, new analyses of a Martian meteorite suggest.
hydrothermal systems
Posted inNews
Lost City’s Plumbing Exposed by the Longest Mantle Core Ever Drilled
The core, which is 71% complete, reveals millions of years of geologic history and the plumbing underlying hydrothermal vents.
Posted inNews
The Tonga Eruption Left Deep-Sea Life Buried in Ash
When Hunga erupted in 2022, ash “decimated” slow-moving species living on the seafloor. More mobile species were able to hoof it out of harm’s way.
Posted inEditors' Vox
The Not-So-Silent Depths
A new book reveals that ocean depths are far from silent voids, but are actually alive with noise.
Posted inNews
Steamy Bubbles May Control Old Faithful’s Clock
Scientists built a minigeyser to show why the natural wonder’s water surges so violently between eruptions.
Posted inOpinions
A Transformative Carbon Sink in the Ocean?
Water-rock reactions in some hydrothermal systems produce both hydrogen, which could be tapped for clean energy, and alkaline solutions that could help draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Posted inNews
Meteor Impact Site Holds 200-Million-Year-Old Atmospheric Snapshot
Minerals formed in short-lived hydrothermal systems set off by a meteor impact in France preserved information about noble gases in the ancient atmosphere.
Posted inNews
La canción de hielo y fuego del criovulcanismo
Las lunas oceánicas del sistema solar exterior nos dan pistas sobre volcanes de hielo, fuentes hidrotermales, y la tentadora posibilidad de habitabilidad.
Posted inFeatures
Cryovolcanism’s Song of Ice and Fire
Ocean moons of the outer solar system hint at ice volcanoes, hydrothermal vents, and the tantalizing chance of habitability.
Posted inNews
The Western Great Basin Has an Arsenic Problem—Blame Its Geology
A new study links geological factors such as faulting and geothermal activity to an elevated risk of arsenic contamination in private wells across the Great Basin.