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February 18, 2021 Researchers at the SETI Institute say that mysterious dark streaks on sun-facing slopes on Mars, debated about for years, may be small landslides caused by a combination of salts and melting ice just below the surface. A sample of Mars analog crust (imitation Martian soil) containing sulfate salts (blue and pink). The new study suggests that such salts and melting ice just below the surface on Mars could cause the enigmatic dark streaks on sun-facing slopes. Image via Janice Bishop/ SETI Institute. For years now, scientists have been trying to figure out what causes weird da...

Red planet Mars is more seismically active than first thought (Image: Express) READ MORE "This could revolutionise our perspective on habitability just below the surface on Mars today." High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) data beamed-back by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) reveals RSL located on sun-facing slopes. The current study extends these observations with a near-surface cryosalt activity model based on field observations and lab experiments. Dr Bishop said: ”If our hypothesis is correct, then RSL could be indicators for salts on Mars and for near-surface a...

Landslides on Mars during the summer months may be caused by underground salts and melting ice, a new study claims.  Using imitation Martian soil samples, SETI Institute researchers in the US recreated Martian landslides on a miniature scale in the lab. The frozen, salty and chlorine-laden samples were thawed under temperatures intended to replicate a Martian summer, resulting in slush and liquid water.    On Mars, melting ice in regolith – the dusty blanket of sediment on the planet's surface – is due to interactions between chlorine salts and sulfates This creates an unstable, liqui...

Martian landslides may be caused by melting ice and salt under the surface Mars may seem like a still, frozen desert, but more evidence suggests that the red planet is active in subtle ways. The NASA InSight mission has helped researchers determine that the planet experiences Marsquakes, making it seismically active. And then there is the mystery of Recurring Slope Lineae, known as RSL, that have intrigued scientists for years. These RSL are a form of landslide on Mars, but no one knows what causes them, said Janice Bishop, author of a new study on the phenomena. “We see them from orbit by ...

Loading video... VIDEO: Short video illustrating wetting of Mars soil analog material covering calcium sulfate and calcium chloride from below, absorption of water by salts and soil particles, migration of the salts towards... view more  Credit: Video Credit: Janice Bishop and Markus Gruendler, SETI Institute February 3, 2021, Mountain View, CA - A team of researchers led by SETI Institute Senior Research Scientist Janice Bishop, a member of the SETI Institute NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) team, has come up with a theory about what is causing landslides on the surface of Mars. Pre...