Scientists may have discovered the cause of landslides on the surface of Mars. A team of ten scientists in a recent study published in Science Advances suggest that the melting of snow and salt present on the red planet may have been the cause of the Lineae Slope Recurring, ris. called RSL.
Nine other members of the research were led by JL Bishop, senior research scientist at the SETI Institute in California, including M. Yeşilbaş, NW Hinman, FM Burton, AJ Englert, JD Toner, AS McEwen, VC Gulick, EK Gibson, and C. Koeberl.
According to a press release by SETI, a team of scientists analyzed data collected from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) that showed RSLs located on the exposed solar slopes. and / or extends over time.
In previous studies RSLs were thought to be associated with chlorine salts and scientists noted that they occurred in regions of high sulfate crops. However, the current study extends this observation with a near-surface cryosalt activity model based on site observation and laboratory experiments. But the exact reason for the creation of RSL on Mars remains a mystery, scientists say.
Scientists, who run Mars analog field investigations on Earthat places such as the Dry Valley in Antarctica, the Dead Sea in Israel, and the Salar de Pajonales in the Atacama Desert, have discovered when salt interacts with gypsum or groundwater, it causes surface disturbance, including falls and landslides. Using the same logic, the study suggests that the RSL means that there is natural salt and ice on the red planet beneath its surface.
In a statement, the Bishop said the research team sees the RSL from orbit with the dark streaks they make on the ground and tends to appear constantly on observing slopes. on the sun, which made geologists think they were related to the melting of early ice. The lead research author also said that the interesting thing is that RSLs increase over months after dust storms and then fade away, and they appear to reappear in the same categories. The study also found that many of these form in the equatorial part of Mars, where there is not much ice.
The team also conducted experiments reproducing the behavior of chlorine salts and sulfates, including gypsum, under low temperature just like in Mars to show how interconnected these salts are. Through these experiments, researchers have discovered that the microscale melting water may be migrating underground on Mars, moving water molecules between the sulfates and chlorides.