Incredible discoveries made this week by Martina Janeckova

Scientists exploring caves in the Atacama Desert in Chile made a totally unexpected discovery this week – they found water. This discovery is very surprising, because no hot place on Earth is drier than the Atacama Desert. Many parts of this high-plateau desert have never received rain that anyone can remember and the average rainfall here is just 1 millimeter per year. The research team (J. Judson Wynne, cave expert with SETI Institute and Northern Arizona University, Pete Polsgrove, a Northern Arizona University Ph.D. student in microbiology; Dan Ruby, associate director of Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center in Reno; geographer and speleologist Knutt Peterson; self-taught astronomer John DeDecker; expedition doctor Lynn Hicks; commercial pilot and wilderness guide Christina Colpitts; and U.S. Geological Survey astrophysicist Tim Titus.) was exploring Cueva Chulacao, the largest known cave in the Cordillera de la Sal. Wynne said that “Much to my surprise, as we moved about halfway through this passage, my foot completely sunk into the soil. It was mud! There was a lot of it. It was all contained within the salt stream flow that meandered through this passage.” However, there is no known source of water nearby. In a different cave in this region, the expedition found deposited animal remains. It’s not clear yet if the animals were dumped into the cave by prehistorical people or if they were trapped by flood. These discoveries may prove exciting for scientists searching for water on Mars. Wynne explained that their goal is to define mission and instrumentation requirements for detecting caves on Mars using thermal infrared imagery. The research is funded by NASA. Similar program will be organized in Mojave Desert in California.

by Martina Janeckova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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