WEBVTT 1 00:00:03.399 --> 00:00:07.719 Welcome to Bedtime Astronomy. Explore the wonders of the cosmos 2 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:12.279 with our soothing Bedtime Astronomie podcast. Each episode offers a 3 00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:16.320 gentle journey through the stars, planets, and beyond, perfect for 4 00:00:16.399 --> 00:00:20.239 unwinding after a long day. Let's travel through the mysteries 5 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:22.440 of the universe as you drift off into a peaceful 6 00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:24.120 slumber under the night sky. 7 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:31.519 Mars. Let's be honest. When you close your eyes and 8 00:00:31.559 --> 00:00:34.119 picture it, what do you see? You see the rust 9 00:00:34.359 --> 00:00:38.119 right the rest, You see that endless oxidized orange dust, 10 00:00:38.719 --> 00:00:41.759 just rocks that have been sitting there, baking in radiation 11 00:00:42.479 --> 00:00:47.560 for three billion years. It is the definitive desert planet. 12 00:00:47.679 --> 00:00:50.759 It is, I mean in our collective imagination and certainly 13 00:00:50.759 --> 00:00:53.119 in the images we get from the rovers. It's a 14 00:00:53.119 --> 00:00:56.560 place of absolute desiccation. It really makes the Sahara look 15 00:00:56.600 --> 00:00:57.840 like a rainforest exactly. 16 00:00:57.920 --> 00:00:59.880 And the story we've been told, the story of the 17 00:01:00.119 --> 00:01:02.640 basically in all the textbooks, is that the water is gone, 18 00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:04.799 or well, if it's not gone, it's locked up in 19 00:01:04.799 --> 00:01:07.280 the attic in the basement at poles, right at the poles. 20 00:01:07.359 --> 00:01:10.280 That's the prevailing narrative. We know there is water ice 21 00:01:10.359 --> 00:01:12.879 at the poles. We can literally see the white caps. 22 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:15.920 But for human exploration, you know, for the dream of 23 00:01:15.959 --> 00:01:19.319 actually living there, the poles are well. 24 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:22.879 The problematic problematic is a very very polite way of 25 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:24.760 saying absolutely lethal, isn't it? 26 00:01:24.760 --> 00:01:25.319 It really is. 27 00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:27.719 But here is where it gets interesting for our deep 28 00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:31.400 dive today. What if that story is wrong, or not 29 00:01:31.480 --> 00:01:34.280 wrong exactly, but missing a massive chapter. 30 00:01:34.280 --> 00:01:35.640 A huge chapter, right? 31 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:39.400 What if there are gigantic reserves of water. We're talking 32 00:01:39.519 --> 00:01:44.319 massive active glaciers hiding in plain sight right near the equator, 33 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:47.280 exactly where we want to land, and the only reason 34 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:49.280 we haven't seen them is because they are wearing a disguise. 35 00:01:49.480 --> 00:01:51.680 It sounds like a conspiracy theory, doesn't it. But this 36 00:01:51.719 --> 00:01:54.719 is actually the central thesis of a fascinating new piece 37 00:01:54.760 --> 00:01:56.480 of research we are unpacking today. 38 00:01:56.599 --> 00:01:58.879 Yeah. So today we are looking at a breakdown of 39 00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:01.959 a study published in the journal Icarus by Mme de 40 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:05.680 Pablo and a team of researchers. And the specific article 41 00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:08.479 that caught our eye was from Universe Today, written by 42 00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:12.240 Andy Thomas Wick titled Martian Volcanoes could be hiding massive 43 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:14.400 glaciers under a blanket of ash. 44 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:16.719 And this research essentially proposes that we might be sitting 45 00:02:16.759 --> 00:02:19.719 on the resource jackpot of the Solar System. But to 46 00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:21.639 find it, we have to stop looking at Mars like 47 00:02:21.639 --> 00:02:24.719 a dead rock and start understanding how volcanoes and ice 48 00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:26.520 interact and really specific ways. 49 00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:28.599 And to do that we have to start, of all 50 00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:30.360 places in Antarctica we do. 51 00:02:30.439 --> 00:02:33.719 We have to look at a very specific, very strange 52 00:02:33.719 --> 00:02:36.680 island on Earth to decode what is happening on Mars. 53 00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:40.520 So here is the mission for this deep dive. We're 54 00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:44.560 going to find out how a volcano in Antarctica is 55 00:02:44.599 --> 00:02:48.960 basically the decoder ring for Martian geology. We are going 56 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:52.280 to look at the smoking guns that prove these glaciers exist. 57 00:02:52.439 --> 00:02:55.719 We'll explain why our billion dollar radar satellites completely miss them. 58 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:59.400 And then we are going to talk about the catch, the. 59 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:03.000 Legal catch, the incredible irony that finding this water might 60 00:03:03.080 --> 00:03:04.840 make it illegal to actually touch. 61 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:07.520 Right, So settle in. We are going really deep on 62 00:03:07.560 --> 00:03:07.879 this one. 63 00:03:08.039 --> 00:03:08.400 Let's do it. 64 00:03:08.439 --> 00:03:11.159 I want to start with the accessibility problem because I 65 00:03:11.159 --> 00:03:12.840 feel like a lot of people listening might think, you know, 66 00:03:12.919 --> 00:03:15.159 water is water. If we know there's ice at the 67 00:03:15.199 --> 00:03:19.080 Martian poles, why are we so obsessively hunting for it 68 00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:21.599 at the equator. Why can't we just land at the 69 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:24.360 North Pole, melt some ice and make a cup of tea. 70 00:03:24.439 --> 00:03:26.280 It's a great question, and it really comes down to 71 00:03:26.319 --> 00:03:29.280 the sheer brutality of the Martian environment. You have to 72 00:03:29.319 --> 00:03:33.439 remember Mars is already incredibly cold. The average global temperature 73 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:36.840 is something like minus eighty degrees fahrenheit, but the poles, 74 00:03:37.560 --> 00:03:39.560 the poles are a completely different beast. 75 00:03:39.680 --> 00:03:41.280 How cold are we actually talking. 76 00:03:41.159 --> 00:03:44.240 During the polar winter? You are looking at temperatures dropping 77 00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:47.240 to minus one hundred and ninety five degrees fahrenheit. 78 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:47.759 Wow. 79 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:51.759 Yeah, that is cold enough to freeze carbon dioxide directly 80 00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:54.439 out of the atmosphere. That is actually why the caps 81 00:03:54.479 --> 00:03:57.280 grow and shrink. It's dry ice freezing and sublimating. 82 00:03:57.439 --> 00:03:59.599 Right. So, if I am trying to run a habitat 83 00:03:59.800 --> 00:04:02.520 or rover or just keep my blood like wed. 84 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:06.800 You are fighting a losing battle. Materials become brittle, electronics fail, 85 00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:10.240 lubricants freeze solid, and then there is the darkness. The 86 00:04:10.280 --> 00:04:13.400 polar regions on ours, just like here on Earth, experience 87 00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:17.800 months of total darkness. If you are relying on solar power, 88 00:04:17.839 --> 00:04:20.600 which is our primary energy source, for these missions, you 89 00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:21.439 are dead in the water. 90 00:04:21.639 --> 00:04:24.000 So operationally speaking, the poles are a. 91 00:04:24.079 --> 00:04:26.800 Nightmare, an absolute nightmare. But there is another layer to this, 92 00:04:26.839 --> 00:04:29.879 which is the regulatory hurdle, the space lawyers, the planetary 93 00:04:29.879 --> 00:04:33.040 protection officers. Yes, we have an international agreement that we 94 00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:36.439 cannot contaminate what are called special regions on Mars. A 95 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:39.720 special region is defined essentially as anywhere that earth microbes 96 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:41.639 might be able to survive and replicate. 97 00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:43.399 And since life needs water. 98 00:04:43.560 --> 00:04:47.839 Exactly the poles have accessible water. Ice if we crash 99 00:04:47.879 --> 00:04:50.120 a lander there, or if a human walks around there 100 00:04:50.120 --> 00:04:54.680 with a leaky spacesuit, we could introduce earth bacteria into 101 00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:58.800 a water rich environment that could completely destroy our ability 102 00:04:58.839 --> 00:05:01.879 to ever detect native Martian life. We simply wouldn't know 103 00:05:01.879 --> 00:05:04.439 if the bugs we found were Martians or just hitchhikers 104 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:05.079 from Florida. 105 00:05:05.279 --> 00:05:07.600 So the poles are essentially the forbidden zone. 106 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:10.720 That's right. They are the most scientifically valuable spots, so 107 00:05:10.759 --> 00:05:14.800 we aren't allowed to touch them without extreme billion dollar 108 00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:19.000 sterilization protocols that just aren't feasible for large scale human 109 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:20.759 missions yet, which brings us. 110 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:23.879 To the holy grail. We need water, but we need 111 00:05:23.879 --> 00:05:26.319 it where it's warm, where there is sunlight and where 112 00:05:26.319 --> 00:05:29.519 the planetary protection rules are a little more relaxed. We 113 00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:30.759 need water at the equator. 114 00:05:30.920 --> 00:05:34.040 Ideally, yes, the mid latitudes or the equator. That is 115 00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:36.040 where you have the solar energy. That is where the 116 00:05:36.040 --> 00:05:38.360 thermal management of your base is easier. That is where 117 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:39.079 you want to build. 118 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:41.439 The equator is dry, it's a desert. 119 00:05:41.839 --> 00:05:44.399 Well that has been the assumption. We look at the 120 00:05:44.399 --> 00:05:47.519 equator and we see dust, we see rock. But for 121 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:51.399 decades geologists have been looking at satellite images of these regions, 122 00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:56.079 specifically around the volcanoes, and seeing things that look well. 123 00:05:56.519 --> 00:05:58.720 Wrong, wrong, how like out of place. 124 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:02.399 Yeah, they see shapes, low bait shapes, these long tongues 125 00:06:02.439 --> 00:06:04.680 of material that look like they flowed down a hill. 126 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:07.160 If you saw that exact shape on Earth, you would 127 00:06:07.160 --> 00:06:10.839 immediately say that is a glacier. But on Mars at 128 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:14.800 the equator, exposed ice is impossible. It would sublimate, turned 129 00:06:14.839 --> 00:06:18.839 straight from a solid into a gas almost instantly in 130 00:06:18.839 --> 00:06:20.279 that thin atmosphere. 131 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:22.120 So a scientist are looking at these shapes and saying 132 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:24.600 it looks like a glacier, but physics says it absolutely 133 00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:25.600 cannot be a glacier. 134 00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:29.040 Exactly, and that cognitive dissonance is exactly what this new 135 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:31.680 paper is trying to resolve. They are basically saying it 136 00:06:31.720 --> 00:06:33.519 is a glacier. It's just wearing a heavy coat. 137 00:06:33.759 --> 00:06:36.600 And to prove that they found a twin, a geological 138 00:06:36.600 --> 00:06:39.439 twin right here on Earth, let's talk about Deception Island. 139 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:42.839 Ah, Deception Island. It is genuinely one of my favorite 140 00:06:42.839 --> 00:06:44.879 places on Earth geologically speaking. 141 00:06:45.240 --> 00:06:47.920 Even the name Deception Island it sounds like a villain's 142 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:49.360 layer from a spy movie. 143 00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:52.519 It really does. It's actually located in the South Shetland Islands, 144 00:06:52.600 --> 00:06:55.120 just off the Antarctic Peninsula. And it's named that because 145 00:06:55.120 --> 00:06:58.279 from the outside, from the ocean, it looks like a solid, 146 00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:02.199 impregnable island. But it's actually a donut. It's a ring 147 00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:06.600 a caldera, right, It's the flooded caldera of an active volcano. 148 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:09.279 You can actually sail a ship right through a narrow 149 00:07:09.279 --> 00:07:12.680 breach in the wall, a spot called Neptune's Bellows and 150 00:07:12.839 --> 00:07:15.040 anchor inside the center of the volcano. 151 00:07:15.240 --> 00:07:18.800 That sounds incredibly ominous, Yeah, anchoring your ship inside an 152 00:07:18.839 --> 00:07:19.639 active volcano. 153 00:07:19.759 --> 00:07:23.120 It is, And it's not just technically active. It is historically, 154 00:07:23.319 --> 00:07:26.600 very recently active. This thing erupted multiple times in the 155 00:07:26.680 --> 00:07:30.360 late nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies, and those specific eruptions 156 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:33.439 are the key to unlocking our Martian mystery. 157 00:07:33.079 --> 00:07:35.800 Because Deception Island isn't just made of rock, it's rock 158 00:07:35.839 --> 00:07:37.000 and ice exactly. 159 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:40.319 It's heavily glaciated. So when those eruptions happen, specifically the 160 00:07:40.319 --> 00:07:42.720 big ones in nineteen sixty nine and nineteen seventy, you 161 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:46.600 had this violent, chaotic interaction between magma and ice. 162 00:07:46.920 --> 00:07:50.040 Now, when I think of lava meating ice, I think 163 00:07:50.079 --> 00:07:54.800 of melting, I think of massive steam clouds and catastrophic floods. 164 00:07:54.399 --> 00:07:57.000 And that definitely does happen. But here's the nuance we 165 00:07:57.040 --> 00:07:59.639 need to look at. These were what we call free 166 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:01.600 podo magmatic eruptions. 167 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:04.399 Freedomagnetic. Okay, that is a five dollars word. Break that 168 00:08:04.480 --> 00:08:05.000 down for us. 169 00:08:05.079 --> 00:08:05.360 Sure. 170 00:08:05.439 --> 00:08:09.199 It means the magma interacts directly with water, usually groundwater 171 00:08:09.319 --> 00:08:13.319 or glacial melt, and it basically explodes. The steam expansion 172 00:08:13.560 --> 00:08:20.399 pulverizes the magma into tiny microscopic fragments ash dust. So 173 00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:23.399 instead of just flowing rivers of lava, you get these massive, 174 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:27.240 towering plumes of black ash raining down on everything for miles. 175 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:31.040 So it essentially rained black dust onto these pristine white glaciers. 176 00:08:31.160 --> 00:08:34.320 Yes, it blanketed them completely. And here's where the physics 177 00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:37.320 gets incredibly cool. You'd instinctly think hot ash falling on 178 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:38.600 a glacier would melt the whole thing. 179 00:08:38.679 --> 00:08:42.600 Sure, hot rock, cold ice melting ensues, But ash is 180 00:08:42.799 --> 00:08:43.480 very porous. 181 00:08:43.559 --> 00:08:45.840 It is full of tiny air pockets. It's actually an 182 00:08:45.879 --> 00:08:49.519 incredible insulator. Think of it like a giant blanket of styrofoam. 183 00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:52.039 If you put a thin layer of hot ash on ice, 184 00:08:52.559 --> 00:08:56.080 Sure the top millimeter melts, but once that ash cools down, 185 00:08:56.279 --> 00:08:58.440 it forms a crust, a thermal barrier. 186 00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:00.919 So it stops being a heat source and immediately starts 187 00:09:00.919 --> 00:09:02.399 being protective blanket exactly. 188 00:09:02.600 --> 00:09:05.080 It shields the ice from the sun, It shields it 189 00:09:05.080 --> 00:09:07.919 from the wind, It traps the cold. In so on 190 00:09:07.960 --> 00:09:10.679 Deception Island today, there are places where you can walk 191 00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:13.320 on what looks for all the world like a dirt hill. 192 00:09:13.799 --> 00:09:17.399 It's gray, it's rocky, it looks like solid ground. But 193 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:19.519 if you were to dig down just a meter or 194 00:09:19.519 --> 00:09:23.039 so with a shovel, you would hit solid ancient glacial ice. 195 00:09:22.879 --> 00:09:25.279 A dirty glacier or glacier in an earth suit. 196 00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:27.519 A debris covered glacier, that is the technical term. And 197 00:09:27.559 --> 00:09:30.039 this gives us a very clear model a mechanism. If 198 00:09:30.039 --> 00:09:32.559 it can happen so perfectly on Deception Island, could it 199 00:09:32.600 --> 00:09:33.480 happen on Mars. 200 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:37.440 So the researchers took this model volcano erupts ash covers ice, 201 00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:40.720 ice survives, and they looked at Mars and they found 202 00:09:40.759 --> 00:09:41.120 a match. 203 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:44.600 They did they turned their attention to a specific region 204 00:09:44.679 --> 00:09:47.559 called hecate Stolus hicicety Stillus. 205 00:09:47.720 --> 00:09:48.559 Another great name. 206 00:09:49.240 --> 00:09:53.200 Who is Heckeity the Greek goddess of magic, crossroads and ghosts, 207 00:09:53.440 --> 00:09:56.240 which is actually very fitting for a dead volcano. 208 00:09:56.039 --> 00:09:58.919 Very fitting. So what exactly is Hickey Stillness. 209 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:02.440 It's an ancient shield volcano in the northern hemisphere of Mars. 210 00:10:02.759 --> 00:10:06.200 It's incredibly old. We are talking billions of years. But 211 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:08.720 when the researchers looked at the flanks of this volcano, 212 00:10:08.759 --> 00:10:11.440 the long slopes leading down from the peak, they saw 213 00:10:11.480 --> 00:10:15.240 the exact same morphological features they saw on Deception Island. 214 00:10:15.399 --> 00:10:18.879 Morphology meaning the physical shape and texture of the land. 215 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:22.240 Right, They didn't just see generic rocks or impact craters, 216 00:10:22.279 --> 00:10:25.799 they saw specific patterns that on Earth only ever form 217 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:28.320 when you have a massive body of ice moving under 218 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:29.440 a blanket of debris. 219 00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:32.919 So the working hypothesis is this Hicky Stolus erupted a 220 00:10:32.919 --> 00:10:36.840 long time ago. It spewed massive amounts of ash. That 221 00:10:37.039 --> 00:10:39.639 ash covered the glaciers that were sitting at its base, 222 00:10:40.200 --> 00:10:44.000 and now millions or billions of years later, those exact 223 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:47.639 same glaciers are still sitting there, perfectly preserved under a 224 00:10:47.720 --> 00:10:49.039 layer of rock and dust. 225 00:10:49.279 --> 00:10:52.080 That is the theory. But in planetary science, you can't 226 00:10:52.120 --> 00:10:54.000 just look at a picture and say, well, it looks similar, 227 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:56.440 so it must be the same thing. You need proof. 228 00:10:56.840 --> 00:10:59.759 You need evidence that creates a signature that only ice 229 00:10:59.799 --> 00:11:00.440 can create. 230 00:11:01.080 --> 00:11:02.000 The smoking guns. 231 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:06.399 The smoking guns, and this paper identifies three very distinct ones. 232 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:08.639 Let's walk through these because this is the real detective work. 233 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:11.559 Smoking gun number one crevasses. 234 00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:14.159 Crevasses. Now, most people kind of know what a crevass 235 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:17.039 is if you've seen a documentary about climbers on Everest. 236 00:11:17.080 --> 00:11:20.440 It's the terrifying, seemingly bottomless crack in. 237 00:11:20.440 --> 00:11:22.879 The ice, right the abyss you didn't want to fall into. 238 00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:27.480 Exactly, But physically, why does a crevass actually form. It 239 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:30.919 forms because ice is a solid, but on a massive scale, 240 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:34.360 it flows like a very very slow, thick liquid. It 241 00:11:34.440 --> 00:11:37.440 is plastic. When that flowing ice goes over a bump 242 00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:39.639 in the bedrock beneath it, or has to turn a corner, 243 00:11:39.919 --> 00:11:42.519 it stretches, and because the top layer of the ice 244 00:11:42.600 --> 00:11:45.039 is brittle, it snaps. It cracks. 245 00:11:45.120 --> 00:11:47.960 Okay, So cracks mean movement precisely. 246 00:11:48.360 --> 00:11:50.639 If you just have a pile of dirt static bert 247 00:11:51.039 --> 00:11:55.360 it doesn't form systematic, deep parallel cracks. It might slump 248 00:11:55.399 --> 00:11:57.559 a bit in a landslide, but it doesn't fracture in 249 00:11:57.600 --> 00:11:59.720 these very specific, predictable patterns. 250 00:12:00.039 --> 00:12:02.639 And we see these exact cracks on Deception Island. 251 00:12:02.840 --> 00:12:06.080 We do. We see them incredibly clearly in the high 252 00:12:06.120 --> 00:12:11.080 resolution satellite imagery of the ash covered glaciers there. And crucially, 253 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:14.440 we see these exact same fracture patterns on the slopes 254 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:15.480 of Hegetistolus. 255 00:12:15.679 --> 00:12:18.000 So we are looking at a Martian surface that is 256 00:12:18.279 --> 00:12:21.519 broken in a way that suggests the material underneath it 257 00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:23.120 is stretching and flowing downhill. 258 00:12:23.279 --> 00:12:25.919 Yes, it implies that the core of that dirt pile 259 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:29.559 is actually something mobile, something that behaves exactly like ice. 260 00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:33.639 Okay, that is compelling, but rock can crack, earthquakes happen. 261 00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:37.080 What makes it definite? That brings us to smoking gun 262 00:12:37.159 --> 00:12:39.639 number two. And this is a word I had honestly 263 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:42.279 never heard before reading this paper. The berg shrund. 264 00:12:42.519 --> 00:12:46.000 The berg shrund. It's a wonderful German word, berg meaning mountain, 265 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:48.120 shrund meaning cleft or fissure. 266 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:49.679 It sounds like a heavy metal band. 267 00:12:49.879 --> 00:12:54.200 We are the Bergschrund, it really does. But geologically speaking, 268 00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:57.600 it is a very specific, very important feature. A berg 269 00:12:57.639 --> 00:13:00.600 shrund is a special type of crevass that forms at 270 00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:02.840 the very top of a glacier at. 271 00:13:02.679 --> 00:13:03.519 The head right. 272 00:13:04.279 --> 00:13:08.039 Imagine a massive glacier sitting in a mountain valley. The 273 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:10.559 top edge of the ice is frozen solid to the 274 00:13:10.559 --> 00:13:13.919 mountain rock face. It's stuck there, But the rest of 275 00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:16.879 the massive body of the glacier is incredibly heavy and 276 00:13:16.919 --> 00:13:19.240 gravity is constantly pulling it down the valley. 277 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:20.120 So it pulls apart. 278 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:23.519 It tears away. The moving ice physically rips away from 279 00:13:23.559 --> 00:13:27.240 the stagnant ice or the rock face. That tear creates 280 00:13:27.240 --> 00:13:30.320 a massive, deep, gaping crack right at the very top 281 00:13:30.360 --> 00:13:32.240 of the system. That is the bergshrund. 282 00:13:32.279 --> 00:13:34.679 It's the separation point. It's basically the ice saying I'm 283 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:36.000 leaving now exactly. 284 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:38.840 And here is the kicker for our Martian mystery. You 285 00:13:38.919 --> 00:13:41.360 do not get a bergshrund in a landslide, You do 286 00:13:41.440 --> 00:13:43.679 not get it in a rock fall or a tectonic fault. 287 00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:46.840 You only get it when you have a cohesive, highly 288 00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:50.519 viscous mass that is slowly sliding downhill under its own 289 00:13:50.559 --> 00:13:51.279 immense weight. 290 00:13:51.559 --> 00:13:53.639 And we found these specific formations on Mars. 291 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:58.000 We did the team identified surface features at Hekkati's Goullis 292 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:01.960 that match the geometry of an earth bergshrund perfectly. And 293 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:04.799 we aren't talking about small little cracks here. Some of 294 00:14:04.799 --> 00:14:07.320 these features are up to six hundred meters long. 295 00:14:07.759 --> 00:14:10.600 Six hundred meters it's like six football fields. That is huge. 296 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:14.720 It's massive. To have a continuous, sweeping fracture that large 297 00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:18.799 implies an enormous body of material moving in absolute unison. 298 00:14:19.320 --> 00:14:21.879 It is a very strong indicator that we aren't just 299 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:24.679 looking at loose dirt sliding down a hill. We are 300 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:27.399 looking at a coherent sheet of ice that is, or 301 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:31.240 at least was slowly sliding down the volcano that is wild. 302 00:14:31.399 --> 00:14:34.159 So we have cracks showing flow, which are the crevasses, 303 00:14:34.200 --> 00:14:37.600 and cracks showing detachment. The berg shruns. What is the 304 00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:38.600 third smoking gun? 305 00:14:38.840 --> 00:14:40.440 The third one is found at the other end of 306 00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:42.960 the glacier, the bottom. It's the bulldozer effect. 307 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:45.320 I like the sound of that. What is the bulldozer effect? 308 00:14:45.480 --> 00:14:49.759 Geologists formally call them push moraines. Imagine a massive bulldozer 309 00:14:49.840 --> 00:14:52.480 driving through a field of loose soil and rocks. As 310 00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:55.679 it pushes forward, a huge pile of debris builds up 311 00:14:55.759 --> 00:14:59.200 right in front of the blade. Right now, imagine the 312 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:03.159 bulldozer just stops and backs up. That big ridge stays there. 313 00:15:03.279 --> 00:15:06.440 It marks the furthest point the bulldozer ever reached exactly. 314 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:10.759 Glaciers are nature's bulldozers. As they slide down the valley, 315 00:15:10.879 --> 00:15:13.519 they push thousands of tons of rock and soil in 316 00:15:13.559 --> 00:15:16.960 front of them. When the glacier eventually retreats, or in 317 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:20.519 this specific case, when the ice simply stops moving and stabilizes, 318 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:25.240 it leaves behind these very specific, bumpy, ridged terrains at 319 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:25.960 the terminus. 320 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:28.120 And I'm guessing we see this at Deception Island. 321 00:15:28.240 --> 00:15:31.720 We see it clearly. The ash covered glaciers push the 322 00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:35.320 debris into these distinct lobes, and we see almost identical 323 00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:39.360 low bait ridges surrounding the base of the floes at Hecatistholus. 324 00:15:39.799 --> 00:15:42.080 So let's put the whole puzzle together. Here we have 325 00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:44.639 the massive detachment are at the top, the flow cracks 326 00:15:44.679 --> 00:15:46.879 in the middle, and the rubble pile pushed up at 327 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:49.559 the bottom. It is the complete anatomy of a glacier. 328 00:15:49.679 --> 00:15:51.919 It is. If it walks like a duck, quacks like 329 00:15:51.960 --> 00:15:54.159 a duck, and pushes rocks like a duck, it's probably 330 00:15:54.200 --> 00:15:54.720 a glacier. 331 00:15:54.840 --> 00:15:57.200 But and I have to play Devil's advocate here, because 332 00:15:57.200 --> 00:16:01.039 there is a huge glaring difference between Antarctica and the atmosphere. 333 00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:04.960 The atmosphere Mars is effectively a vacuum compared to Earth. 334 00:16:05.519 --> 00:16:08.240 The atmospheric pressure is tiny. If I took an ice 335 00:16:08.279 --> 00:16:11.039 cube right now and put it on the equator of Mars, 336 00:16:11.200 --> 00:16:14.000 it wouldn't melt into a nice little puddle. It would sublimate. 337 00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:17.120 It would turn straight into gas and just vanish into 338 00:16:17.159 --> 00:16:17.720 the sin air. 339 00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:22.360 Correct exposed ice is fundamentally unstable at those Martian latitudes. 340 00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:25.360 So if these glaciers really are millions of years old. 341 00:16:25.399 --> 00:16:28.080 Why are they still there? Why haven't they just evaporated 342 00:16:28.120 --> 00:16:31.720 away over the eons even with a dirt blanket. Surely 343 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:33.200 the gas would eventually escape. 344 00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:36.320 This is the survival mechanism question, and the authors of 345 00:16:36.360 --> 00:16:39.600 the paper propose a really elegant two stage process to 346 00:16:39.679 --> 00:16:41.360 explain exactly how it survived. 347 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:42.240 Walk us through that. 348 00:16:42.399 --> 00:16:46.320 Okay, Stage one, the volcano erupts, the glacier is covered 349 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:48.759 in ash, but as we discussed with the crevasses, the 350 00:16:48.799 --> 00:16:53.360 glacier is still moving. It cracks, it forms these deep fissures. 351 00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:55.480 Which opens the ice underneath directly to the Martian air 352 00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:56.240 right and at. 353 00:16:56.120 --> 00:17:00.559 That exact moment, simblammation does happen. The pristine ice exposed 354 00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:03.159 deep in those cracks instantly turns to gas and escapes. 355 00:17:03.519 --> 00:17:06.920 But then stage two kicks in the patch kit exactly. 356 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:11.160 Mars is an incredibly dusty place. We have global dust storms, 357 00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:14.559 we have more volcanic ash falling over time. That ambient 358 00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:17.039 dust settles right into those open cracks. 359 00:17:17.200 --> 00:17:20.079 It fills them up like spackling a hole in drywall. 360 00:17:19.720 --> 00:17:23.480 Perfect analogy. The dust fills the crevasses and creates a 361 00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:26.880 dense plug. And once that plug is formed, the system 362 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:30.279 is sealed, the dust gets compacted. It becomes a physical 363 00:17:30.319 --> 00:17:33.480 barrier that water vapor just cannot easily pass through. 364 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:36.519 So the ice is basically trapped inside its own patched 365 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:37.000 up shell. 366 00:17:37.240 --> 00:17:40.640 It's sealed in a geological time capsule. The authors argue 367 00:17:40.680 --> 00:17:43.319 that what we see today, these shallow, dusty troughs on 368 00:17:43.359 --> 00:17:46.640 the surface, are actually just the ghosts of the original crevasses. 369 00:17:47.119 --> 00:17:49.920 The ice deep below has retreated slightly, the dust has 370 00:17:49.960 --> 00:17:52.359 slumped in to fill the void, and now the whole 371 00:17:52.400 --> 00:17:56.039 system is an equilibrium. The sublimation has stopped completely because 372 00:17:56.079 --> 00:17:58.640 the seal is airtight, or well Mars tight. 373 00:17:58.839 --> 00:18:02.359 That is incredible. The very environment that usually destroys the ice, 374 00:18:02.519 --> 00:18:05.640 the blowing dust and the dry conditions, actually helps seal 375 00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:06.759 it in and protect it. 376 00:18:06.839 --> 00:18:08.039 Nature always finds a way. 377 00:18:08.160 --> 00:18:10.359 Okay, So the geology makes sense, the physics of the 378 00:18:10.359 --> 00:18:15.279 preservation makes sense. But there is one giant, billion dollar 379 00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:18.519 technological elephant in the room, and we really have to 380 00:18:18.559 --> 00:18:22.799 address it. Sure, Charad. The shallow radar instrument on the 381 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:26.799 Mars Reconnaissance orbiter. This is a machine built specifically to 382 00:18:26.839 --> 00:18:30.640 find underground ice. It sends radar ways down. They bounce 383 00:18:30.680 --> 00:18:33.160 off the subsurface ice and we get a nice picture. 384 00:18:34.200 --> 00:18:37.240 We have used it to map the poles, we have 385 00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:40.000 used it to find buried ice all over the planet. 386 00:18:40.119 --> 00:18:42.799 It is arguably our primary tool for exactly this kind 387 00:18:42.839 --> 00:18:43.160 of work. 388 00:18:43.359 --> 00:18:47.519 So did it be when Shared flew directly over Hekatious Stulless, 389 00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:49.720 did it's a bing giant glacier right here? 390 00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:52.920 It did not. It was completely silent, worse than silent. Actually, 391 00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:55.279 it gave us noise clutter. And for a long time 392 00:18:55.319 --> 00:18:58.000 critics of the glacier theory have used that as definitive proof. 393 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:00.279 They say, look, if there was a mile thick glacier 394 00:19:00.400 --> 00:19:03.160 sitting right there, the radar would absolutely see it. Didn't 395 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:04.920 see it. Therefore, just a pile of rock. 396 00:19:05.079 --> 00:19:06.960 That sounds pretty logical on the surface. 397 00:19:07.400 --> 00:19:10.960 It sounds logical, but it completely ignores the physical limitations 398 00:19:10.960 --> 00:19:14.559 of the technology itself. The paper argues that Charade is 399 00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:18.720 the right tool, but hecatas Thullus is the absolute wrong 400 00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:19.880 geometry for it. 401 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:23.359