Water-rich opals may one day provide a source of water on the Martian surface.
on the planet's surface makes it inhospitable to life as we know it. However, inside subsurface fractures, there is a much darker environment better protected from the intense radiation that is constantly bombarding Gale Carter on the outside. Water-rich opals inside these fractures makes their discovery even more exciting.
"Seeing that these fracture networks were so widespread and likely chock-full of opal was incredible, research physicist Travis Gabriel, formerly of the University of Arizona, said in a."Given the widespread fracture networks discovered in Gale Crater, it's reasonable to expect that these potentially habitable subsurface conditions extended to many other regions of Gale Crater as well, and perhaps in other regions of Mars.
Light-toned fracture halos as seen crosscutting the bedrock extend into the subsurface. These fracture networks would have served as safe havens from harsh surface conditions in a modern period on Mars. Gabriel and his colleagues think evidence of opal possibly means that the fracture halos on Mars were some of the last places that had an abundance of liquid water, and that Mars may have dried up after they formed. , solutions like this occur in geysers and hot springs as well as at the bottom of bodies of oceans and other bodies of water. When particles of silica settle at the bottom of the solution, they begin to create an opal.
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