Mars Lost an Ocean. We May Have Found Where It Went.
Mars had enough water to cover the whole planet in an ocean. The rock proves it: a river delta in Jezero Crater that Perseverance is drilling right now, sulfate veins Curiosity has driven across, dried valley networks carved by floods. Then the water vanished. The surface today is bone dry, and watching the atmosphere bleed into space only accounts for part of it. The hydrogen isotopes are stubborn: a big share of that ancient ocean never left the planet at all.
Cosmiq. The universe, honestly.
Chapters
0:00 — A river delta on Mars, right now
1:13 — How much water Mars once had
2:53 — Where it went: escape to space
3:50 — The hydrogen isotope clue
5:18 — InSight: listening to marsquakes
6:10 — The 2024 study: an ocean in the crust
7:58 — Why it might be wrong, and what's next
Sources
Wright, V., Morzfeld, M., & Manga, M. (2024). Liquid water in the Martian mid-crust. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
NASA InSight Mars lander mission and seismic dataset. https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/
NASA Mars Perseverance rover, Jezero Crater delta and mudstone observations.
NASA Mars Curiosity rover, calcium sulfate veins in Gale Crater.
NASA MAVEN mission, measurements of Martian atmospheric escape.