Large Caves Found on the Surface of Mars

David DelMonte writes "Space.com is reporting on the discovery of seven dark spots near the Equator on Mars. The thinking is that these are cave openings. The openings are the size of football fields, and one of them is thought to extend approximately 400 feet below the surface.'The researchers hope the discovery will lead to more focused spelunking on Mars. "Caves on Mars could become habitats for future explorers or could be the only structures that preserve evidence of past or present microbial life ," said Glenn Cushing of Northern Arizona University, who first spotted the black areas in the photographs.'"

Re:Old news

[Frozen Void]

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/1 7/1345208&from=rss [slashdot.org]

Re:Surprise?

[Red Flayer]

I thought we already believed that all solid planets had plate activity like Earth, that formed the mountains and valleys. Aren't caves a natural extension of that thought process?

Not necessarily. Most caves on earth are not caused by pyroclastic flow, but rather by (acidic) flowing water dissolving calcite in limestone.

Re:No matter how much changes...

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

> Does anyone else find it slightly amusing that as humans move out into space we may yet again end up living in caves?

It's no more interesting than the fact that people on Mars will probably wear shoes, just like upper paleolithic humans. In fact, less interesting because caves have never played a significant role in human habitation. Humans have lived all over the world, but how many of those places do you think have caves?

Not quite

[novus ordo]

Actually Mars and Venus don't have any major plate activity [lukew.com] and haven't for Millions of years(see wikipedia). It's also why they have weak magnetic fields as the internal dynamo is what sustains a magnetic field. Internal dynamo drives plate tectonics which are sustained [about.com] by the cooling action of surface and core exchanges.
Mars is dead geologically, meaning that it has no volcanic activity and we think that the core has (probably) hardened [anl.gov].
Incidentally, Venus is a much better candidate for colonization, but currently it's a little too hot due to the runaway greenhouse effect (it's surface is 450C). Probes sent there melt and get crushed do to surface pressure soon after they land. It's also a good example for those people who say there is no global warming. Look no further than our bastard twin planet.

Re:Surprise?

[mykdavies]

"I thought we already believed that all solid planets had plate activity like Earth"

Quite the opposite actually: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics#Plate _tectonics_on_other_planets [wikipedia.org] ...it has been proposed that the mechanisms of plate tectonics may *once*[4BY ago] have been active on [Mars]...

Venus shows no evidence of active plate tectonics. There is debatable evidence of active tectonics in the planet's distant past.

Some of the satellites of Jupiter have features that may be related to plate-tectonic style deformation, although the materials and specific mechanisms may be different from plate-tectonic activity on Earth.