Martian soil indicates long-term habitability

• Martian soil suggests that there are probably conditions on Mars.
• Scientists have detected clay-bearing strata in the northern Ladon Valles.
• Clay develops in neutral pH circumstances.

Martian soil suggests that there are probably conditions on Mars that are good for life over a long period of time.

Mars life? Ever? It’s one of the major uncertainties regarding our planetary neighbor; now, research indicates an area of Mars that might have harbored life numerous times over billions of years.

Scientists have detected clay-bearing strata in the northern Ladon Valles, the southern Ladon basin, and the southwestern highlands surrounding the Ladon basin, all in the heavily cratered Margaritifer Terra region.

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Catherine Weitz, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona, says light-toned stratified sediments with modest bedding dips and clays across 200 km are indications of a lake in Ladon basin and northern Ladon Valles.

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It’s not evidence of life – we’d need to find fossils on Mars to prove that – but it suggests life-supporting circumstances. It’s the newest study on Mars’ surface and deposits.