Computer Analysis Suggests Water/Potential Life on Mars

Rice University professors Patrick McGovern and Julia Morgan have recently begun looking at the volcano Olympus Mons located on Mars. McGivern and Morgan initially went about using a computer modeling system to determine how Olympus Mons formed, and soon after concluded that deposits of water are perhaps still located underneath.
In order to model the formation, an algorithm known as 'particle dynamics simulation' was used - this method strongly suggested that clay sediment could account for the particular shape of the volcano, which implies that water was involved at some point, and perhaps still remains.

Because of the NASA Phoenix lander, a craft that last year found ice underneath Mars' surface, we know that there is indeed water on Mars, so it is not an unreasonable to suspect that some may still remain under Olympus Mons as well.

McGovern and Morgan went on to write that the conditions under the mountain could potentially be 'warmed by geothermal gradients and magmatic heat' and are already protected from the surface's conditions, although finding a source of heat might be difficult. If there were a heat source, however, life forms similar to those found deep in Earth's oceans near geothermal vents may exist.

Nicholas Skvir (3)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090304114246.htm