Conditions on the surface of Mars

• Mars page from NASA, continually updated.
• Exploring Mars, from JPL: Pathfinder and so on, continually updated.
• Mars Global Surveyor site from NASA/JPL.
• New York Times stories on Mars; but strangely, only up to 2001.

Where should we look for traces of life on Mars?

• Why has Jack Farmer been studying Mono Lake, California?
• Jack Farmer discusses hot spring environments, present-day and ancient. From GSA Today, July 2000.
• Jack suggests looking for water at the poles of Mars, BBC News OnLine, June 27, 2001. Very sensible. Don't hold your breath waiting for bacteria, though, Jack.

Water on the surface of Mars: then and now?

• Stories, 2001-2005, in reverse chronological order. Really, all you need is the 2005 realization: No water on Mars for billions of years. Previous stories:
  • Evidence for a delta on Mars. NASA press release, November 2003.
  • More evidence that Mars is cold and dry, and has been for 3 billion years. USGS Press release, October 24, 2003. There are very large outcrops of olivine on the Martian surface. On Earth, olivine doesn't last long, because it breaks down easily by weathering, with water playing the major role in that process.
  • A new paper by Allan Treiman argues that the Martian gullies were formed by dry avalanches of desert sand, not water. It convinces me, but that's not necessarily any indication of its value! It's available on the Web via Treiman's home page (ADD URL!)
  • Estimates of more water on Mars. BBC News OnLine, February 16, 2003. Come on, folks, let's be real: Earth's water is not ankle-deep but 3 kilometers deep! And Earth's water isn't lost to space the way Mars water would be if we let it loose.
  • "White Mars" again. Press release, January 7, 2003. This is the idea that the fluid flow that produced gullies on Mars was not water, but liquid carbon dioxide. A re-statement by its main protagonist, Nick Hoffman.
  • The largest floods in the Solar System (on Mars) (but VERY ancient ones). Press release, University of Arizona, August 9, 2001.
  • Speculation that there can be current water flow on Mars. Press release, University of Arizona, July 31, 2001.
  • Seth Shostak of SETI believes firmly in Martian life.
  • SOME IMAGES of water-laid sediments on Mars (but VERY ancient ones).
  • June 2000. NASA announces the discovery of water-carved gullies on Mars, and they look fresh, therefore new. The media immediately jump on the "There-IS-water on Mars" aspect of the story.
    • NASA press release, June 22, 2000
    • Story from the New York Times, June 23, 2000.
    • And another, this one on July 25, 2000. Read it carefully and ask whether there are any new facts!
    • From Science News, July 1, 2000
    • Fascinating and very useful discussion about the physical chemistry of liquid water on the surface of Mars. From NASA news service, June 29, 2000.
    • My reaction to the news. [Draft article for a local newspaper, June 30, 2000.]
    • More "water-on-Mars" photographs, November 2000. Note to RC: this is badly written: look for a NASA news release.
    • There may be (or have been) more water on Mars than we thought. How much is that? We don't want to say! News release about a forthcoming publication, June 2000.
    • There are no visible shorelines on Mars, which suggests that if there ever were oceans on Mars, they didn't last very long! (Check your local reservoir to see how fast shorelines form, even in small lakes.)

  Last updated February 21, 2005.

  Links last checked September 29, 2005.

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