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- (CNN) -- Mars could hold two to three times more water
under its surface than previously estimated, according to a new study.
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- The conclusion is based on a comparison between the amount
of deuterium, a heavier form of hydrogen, in the martian atmosphere and
the amount found in a martian meteorite.
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- The report, to be published in the July 15 issue of Geophysical
Research Letters, comes on the heels of a NASA announcement that the surface
of Mars shows signs of recent liquid water activity.
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- Deuterium combines with oxygen to make so-called heavy
water, which is chemically the same as regular water, except that deuterium
atoms replace hydrogen atoms.
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- In the martian atmosphere, water vapor has a ratio of
deuterium to hydrogen five times greater than that of water on Earth.
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- This difference has been attributed to the escape of
hydrogen from the martian atmosphere over time. Hydrogen is lighter than
deuterium and escapes more easily, which would explain the much higher
level of deuterium in the atmosphere of Mars, according to the report.
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- Postulating that Mars and Earth had the same ratio of
the two gases billions of years ago, scientists have calculated that the
red planet has lost 90 percent of the water in its atmosphere and crust.
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- Yet Arizona State University geochemist Laurie A. Leshin
came to another conclusion after studying water crystals in a Mars meteorite,
found in the Antarctic in 1994.
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- She determined that Mars had a
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- deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio nearly twice that of Earth
before atmospheric escape could have taken place.
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- Since martian water originally contained higher deuterium
levels than previously thought, Mars should have lost two or three times
less water than scientists have estimated before, according to Leshin.
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- That water should still exist today within the crust
of the red planet, she said.
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