Studying Earth's Glaciers to Unlock Martian Mysteries
When
Where
Dr. Jack Holt
Professor
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
Massive glaciers have been discovered on Mars and confirmed, using orbital radar, to be composed of water ice. Just one of these glaciers could cover the entire city of Tucson with a half-mile of ice. They could not have formed under today’s Martian conditions, but are preserved by a cover of rock and dust, so they must be relics of past climates. Many questions persist: How did they form? How did they get covered? Could they provide habitats for microbial life?
Here on Earth, a unique class of glaciers resembles these fossil Martian giants. They are equally enigmatic yet easier to access. While they are interesting due to their response to climate change, my team uses them as analogs for Mars, conducting fieldwork in remote parts of Alaska and the Wyoming Rockies. We have developed geophysical methods relevant to future Mars exploration, including an autonomous drone equipped with ground-penetrating radar to see beneath the ice. We also measure glacier motion from drones and aircraft to relate what we learn about their interiors to flow features on the surface.
Together, these studies provide new insights into how these unusual glaciers behave—on both Mars and Earth—with implications for the future human exploration of the Red Planet.