Cave Water and Faunal Bones Found in Atacama Desert

NASA scientists have discovered water in a cave in the driest place in the world---the Atacama desert. The cave Cueva Chulacao, where the water was found, is the largest known cave in the Cordillera de la Sal. There were hardly any indication of recent visits to the place and was in pristine condition.

J. Judson Wynne, a cave expert who is with the SETI Institute and Northern Arizona University, was planting a sensor on the wall of the cave when his feet sank into mud. It was not apparent where the water came from, and it was quite a surprise.

Another surprise came from another cave, which they renamed Cuevita de Huesos which means Small Cave of the Bones, because in it, they discovered hundreds---maybe even thousands of animal bones stuck in the wall, as if encased by time itself. Like the water in the other cave, how the animals came to be deposited there in those numbers is a big mystery.

The scientists were on a sensor-planting mission which would help in research for identifying thermal signatures of caves which may harbor water in a dry environment.

Results of the study would help determine which caves on Mars could potentially have water. Some of these caves, which have already been photographed from space, could potentially harbor life. Otherwise, they can be used by astronauts as shelter from the harsh Martian environment.

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Vast Reservoir of Water Found Underneath Asia

There is something new for geologists to ponder on and it's been called the Beijing anomaly. It's a really vast deposit of water underneath much of China and other parts of the main landmass of Asia.

The discovery is said to be the first for a very large body of water near the Earth's mantle---which definitely conjures up images of Brendan Fraser floating on a raft in a sea underneath the Earth's crust (Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D)---but this is real, not a movie.

The discovery was made by seismologist Michael Wysession of Washington University in St. Louis and former graduate student Jesse Lawrence, who had been analyzing seismic records from China. The area was of particular interest due to it's seismic activity. The two studied 600,000 seismograms from instruments all over the world.

Their findings reveal that much of Asia, particularly the earth underneath Beijing---hence the name of the anomaly--- had a dampening effect on seismic waves. Wysession said that lots of dampening and a little slowing match the predictions for water.

It has been theorized that if a part of the ocean's floor sinks towards the mantle, it would take water down with it, which heats up the deeper it goes, until the rock deteriorates and loses the water.

Wysession explains how the water rises up into the overlying region, which becomes saturated with water. “You would have to put it in the lab to find the water in it.” Wysession estimates that 0.1 percent of the rock that sinks under China is water. The diagram on top shows the rock where much of the water is (red and yellow). The photos on the left are stills from Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, where Brendan Fraser encounters lots of water and sails in an ocean deep inside the Earth.

While Wysession doesn't mention anything about an underground ocean, there are those who believe that the Earth is hollow.

Join Brendan Fraser in Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D.

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Huge Ice Deposits on Martian South Pole Found

The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter has found huge deposits of ice on the south pole of Mars. Scientists have calculated that if melted, water would cover the whole planet up to 36 feet of water. The deposits are up to 2.3 miles thick, about as large as Texas and lie under a layer of solid carbon dioxide mixed with more water and dust. The goal of scientists now is to determine if life thrived before or still does in the ice.