Mars deposit points to possible life zone

PASADENA, Calif., Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Minerals deposited on a martian volcano may provide evidence of a once habitable micro-environment on the planet, U.S. researchers say.

Researchers analyzing observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter identified the material as hydrated silica, a deposit laid down billions of years ago from a possible hydrothermal environment such as a steam fumarole or hot spring, habitat types that on Earth sheltered early life, a NASA release said Sunday.

"The heat and water required to create this deposit probably made this a habitable zone," J.R. Skok of Brown University said. "If life did exist there, this would be a promising type of deposit to entomb evidence of it -- a microbial mortuary."

The finding adds to growing evidence that at some times and in some places Mars has had favorable environments for microbial life.

Silica can be dissolved, transported and concentrated by hot water or steam. Hydrated silica indicates that hot springs or fumaroles fed by underground heating created these deposits, similar to ones around hydrothermal vents in Iceland on Earth.

"The habitable zone would have been within and alongside the conduits carrying the heated water," Scott Murchie of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory said.