Can someone explain how the "ice-sandwich" formed on Mars? (Earth, theory)

[ocpaul20]

January 11 2018 National Geographic article

New NASA images show layers of ice peeking out of eroded cliffs—a potential boon for future humans on the red planet.
Eroded banks throughout Mars's mid-latitudes reveal underground bands of bluish material. Spectra of these layers—which start three to six feet beneath the surface—strongly suggest that they are made of water ice.

At sites across the midsection of Mars, scientists have found layers of water ice buried mere feet beneath the red planet’s surface. The discovery adds crucial detail to Mars’s geologic history, and it may shape how future humans on Mars get their water.

"This is a new window into ground ice on Mars," says Colin Dundas, the U.S. Geological Survey geologist who co-discovered the ice layers.

This old article from NASA identifies a large area of frozen water just feet under the surface of Mars. Yet, they do not explain how this "ice sandwich" could have formed. How do you get feet of soil to form over the top of ice? We do not see it on Earth, in glaciers, and lakes, and we are told that any water existing these days on surface Mars gets sublimated away into the atmosphere.

NASA November 23rd 2016 article
Mars Ice Deposit Holds as Much Water as Lake Superior

[NightBazaar]

Originally Posted by ocpaul20

January 11 2018 National Geographic article


This old article from NASA identifies a large area of frozen water just feet under the surface of Mars. Yet, they do not explain how this "ice sandwich" could have formed. How do you get feet of soil to form over the top of ice? We do not see it on Earth, in glaciers, and lakes, and we are told that any water existing these days on surface Mars gets sublimated away into the atmosphere.

NASA November 23rd 2016 article
Mars Ice Deposit Holds as Much Water as Lake Superior

Here's an even older article dating back to 2002 about Mars Odyssey orbiter detecting the presence of ice about two feet beneath the surface of Mars. Here's a quote from that article:
"It may be better to characterize this layer as dirty ice rather than as dirt containing ice," notes Boynton. The amount of hydrogen detected corresponds to 20% to 50% ice by mass in the lower layer. Because rock has a greater density than ice, this amount is more than 50 percent water ice by volume. This means that if one heated a full bucket of this ice-rich polar soil it would result in more than half a bucket of liquid water.
https://science.nasa.gov/science-new.../28may_marsice

Keep in mind that the recent images show what is described as a scarp. The scarp was probably caused by Marquakes, leaving a very steep slope. Articles I posted in another thread, "Stay On The Moon First vs. Stay On Mars First" (Page 5, Post 43), indicates there are about eight other nearby scarps that may be similar. The scarp shown gives an interesting side view of the Martian interior. As to how ice could be sandwiched like that, it's probably contained in aquifers that have frozen over time, perhaps tens of thousands to perhaps millions of years ago. Scarps can form by erosion or quakes. In this case, because of the steepness of the slope, probably by a Marsquake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7R0yLX0V9E

As far as I know nothing has been said to indicate this is liquid water or pure ice. In all likelihood, there's a lot of rock and soil mixed in with it, like a aquifer (see the quote from the Science Nasa article above). The image was colorized to show where the ice layer is located. In the JPL link, there are two images, the colorized image and a greyscale image.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7038

It'll be interesting to see what additional information will be made available about this 'ice-sandwiched' scarp.

[ocpaul20]

OK, so tectonic plates and Marsquakes on Mars are not yet validated. It is still scientific speculation.

There is a paper on evidence for it and it seems scientsists sort of accept it.
Link 1

An Yin, professor of geology at the University of California, Los Angeles, spotted the tectonic activity in Valles Marineris – a 4000-km-long canyon system named after the Mariner 9 Mars orbiter that discovered the system in the 1970s. Valles Marineris stretches one-fifth of the way round the Martian surface and reaches depths of up to 7 km. The Earth's 1.6-km-deep Grand Canyon is a mere surface scratch in comparison. The formation of Valles Marineris is still not understood despite four decades of research. The most widely accepted theory is that spreading apart of the Martian surface created the system, similar to how rift valleys form on Earth, with the resulting crack being deepened by erosion. But Yin has now found evidence for a completely different process.

However, there is still the Electric Universe theory which could easily have formed many of the structures we see on Mars and across the Solar System.


Suggesting it was Marsquakes then, how exactly would the surface soil get on top of the thin sheet of ice which must have been present when it got buried? This area is supposedly quite large and extensive, possibly too large for a landslide due to a Marsquake from a hill or mountain.



Wouldn't this ice have been melted over the eons it has been there? It is only a few feet beneath the surface and we know there are wild temperature fluctuations in the atmosphere.


All this is suggestive of quite a bit of water on Mars beneath the surface. I have posted images of what looks like some kind of liquid shooting out from a cliff, so it is looking as if this could be more likely rather than the offered explanation of sand streams.