Steep slopes on Mars reveal structure of buried ice

Several months (Wow a couple of years ago posted on Sep, 14 2015 @ 05:00 AM ?) I started a thread about a huge deposit of water Ice discovered on the planet Mars titled: Huge Glacier the Size of California and Texas Combined Found on Mars www.abovetopsecret.com...
From the original thread:

"It extends down to latitudes of 38 degrees,” study lead author Ali Bramson told Space.com. “This would be like someone in Kansas digging in their backyard and finding ice as thick as a 13-story building that covers an area the size of Texas and California combined."

Now the MRO has found some exposed water ice which to me is rather surprising as I would have thought the ice would sublimate/evaporate when exposed ?

Researchers using NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have found eight sites where thick deposits of ice beneath Mars' surface are exposed in faces of eroding slopes.

These eight scarps, with slopes as steep as 55 degrees, reveal new information about the internal layered structure of previously detected underground ice sheets in Mars' middle latitudes.

Middle latitudes are good.. no trekking to the north or south poles ...
phys.org...

Researchers previously used MRO's Shallow Radar (SHARAD) to map extensive underground water-ice sheets in middle latitudes of Mars and estimate that the top of the ice is less than about 10 yards beneath the ground surface. How much less? The radar method did not have sufficient resolution to say. The new ice-scarp studies confirm indications from fresh-crater and neutron-spectrometer observations that a layer rich in water ice begins within just one or two yards of the surface in some areas.
The new study not only suggests that underground water ice lies under a thin covering over wide areas, it also identifies eight sites where ice is directly accessible, at latitudes with less hostile conditions than at Mars' polar ice caps. "Astronauts could essentially just go there with a bucket and a shovel and get all the water they need," Byrne said.

Read more at: phys.org...

I wish we could do a through sampling of this ice to see if there were any little critters frozen within. Maybe someday if we are lucky ?

Also some interesting finds from a couple of meteorites so possible critters frozen in the Martin ice may not be to outlandish
Ingredients for life revealed in meteorites that fell to Earth
January 10, 2018, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The study, published Jan. 10 in the journal Science Advances, provides the first comprehensive chemical exploration of organic matter and liquid water in salt crystals found in Earth-impacting meteorites. The study treads new ground in the narrative of our solar system's early history and asteroid geology while surfacing exciting possibilities for the existence of life elsewhere in Earth's neighborhood.

"It's like a fly in amber," said David Kilcoyne, a scientist at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source (ALS), which provided X-rays that were used to scan the samples' organic chemical components, including carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen. Kilcoyne was part of the international research team that prepared the study.
Read more at: phys.org...

Quaid .. Start the Reactor...

Already posted here 9 hours ago: www.abovetopsecret.com...