At a Glance

Scientists have found a massive ice deposit beneath Mars' surface.The frozen body of water contains as much frozen water as Lake Superior.

Underneath Mars’ cracked and pitted surface is an ice deposit with as much frozen water as Lake Superior.

“Morphological analyses of Utopia Planitia, Mars, have led to the hypothesis that ,” wrote the researchers in the study.

According to the study, the scientists used NASA’s Shallow Radar (SHARAD) instrument to find the ice deposit, which has an area that’s more extensive than that of New Mexico.

“,” lead author Cassie Stuurman told Gizmodo. “Based on outflow channels formed early in Martian history, we think Mars once had enough liquid water to cover the whole planet in a layer (hundreds) of meters deep.”

While the fact that there’s ice on the Red Planet didn’t surprise the researchers, the composition of the deposit was of particular interest. It is made up of a combination that’s 50 to 85 percent water ice,, according to a release from NASA. It ranges in thickness from about 260 feet to about 560 feet.

(MORE:)

The photo above is a vertically exaggerated view that shows scalloped depressions on Mars where researchers used ground-penetrating radar to check for buried ice. They found about as much frozen water as the volume of Lake Superior.

(NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)

Stuurman added that the thickness is unprecedented for deposits of this type and could be used to learn more about the planet’s climate history.

At the deposit’s location, water ice can’t exist on Mars’ surface because it will become a water vapor in the planet’s thin atmosphere, also according to the release. Luckily for the Utopia deposit, a soil estimated to be about 3 to 33 feet thick protects it from the atmosphere.

"This deposit probably formed as snowfall accumulating into an ice sheet mixed with dust during a period in Mars history when the planet's axis was more tilted than it is today," said Stuurman in the release.

“Utopia Planitia” roughly translates to “plains of paradise,” which may be good news for space travelers. Ice deposits close to the surface are being considered as a resource for astronauts.

"This deposit is probably more accessible than most water ice on Marsbecause it is at a relatively low latitude and it lies in a flat, smooth area where landing a spacecraft would be easier than at some of the other areas with buried ice," said co-author Jack Holt in the release.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: The Surface of Mars