Ancient Martian lakes may have harboured life, researchers say

Deep water basins formed on Mars more than three billion years ago may have once been habitable, according to a new research paper which its authors saylendscredibility to the theory that there was once life on the Red Planet.

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Scientists from thePlanetary Science Institute in Tuscon, Ariz.,have been studying a region of Marsclose to a massive volcanic plateau, and theorize it may have once been a habitable environment.

Groundwater circulation beneath the surface ofthis sitemay have helped to createsome of the planet's deepest basins,wrote scientistsJ. Alexis Palmero Rodriguez, Cathy Weitz and Thomas Plaz in a paperpublished in the journalPlanetary Space and Science.

The researchers suggest the basins may have beenalternatelycovered with lava and water over the course ofhundreds of millions of years,creating the right balance of temperature ranges, water pressure and nutrients necessary to sustain life.

Shallow lakes may have formedin these lava-covered basinswithin the last few tens of millions of years, they say.

"The temperature ranges, presence of liquid water, and nutrient availability, which characterize known habitable environments on Earth, have higher chances of forming on Mars in areas of long-lived water and volcanic processes," Rodriguez said in a newsrelease.

Salt deposits and other features of the ancient lakes are of particular importance "when looking for past habitable areas on Mars," he added.

It's just a theory, but if the site was, indeed, oncehabitable, the researchers say itprobably would havebeen geographically similar to Tibet.

"In this research we propose a Tibetan region where high mountain lakes show unique sets of landforms that might explain some basin interior features in the studied region of Mars,"Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez plans tocollaborate with the Chinese government this summer to study Tibetan regions that could be analogous to the Martian site.