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Distribution of Hydrogen in the Near-Surface of Mars: Evidence for Subsurface Ice Deposits
W. V. Boynton 1*,W. C. Feldman 2,S. W. Squyres 3,T. Prettyman 2,J. Brückner 4,L. G. Evans 5,R. C. Reedy 6,R. Starr 7,J. R. Arnold 8,D. M. Drake 9,P. A. J. Englert 10,A. E. Metzger 11,Igor Mitrofanov 12,J. I. Trombka 13,C. d'Uston 14,H. Wänke 4,O. Gasnault 14,D. K. Hamara 1,D. M. Janes 1,R. L. Marcialis 1,S. Maurice 15,I. Mikheeva 1,G. J. Taylor 16,R. Tokar 2,C. Shinohara 1
1 Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. 2 Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA. 3 Center for Radiophysics & Space Research, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. 4 Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie, 55020 Mainz, Federal Republic of Germany. 5 Science Programs, Computer Sciences Corporation, Lanham, MD 20706, USA. 6 Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA; Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA. 7 Department of Physics, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC 20064, USA. 8 Department of Chemistry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. 9 TechSource, Sante Fe, NM 87505, USA. 10 Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand. 11 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. 12 Space Research Institute, Moscow, Russia. 13 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA. 14 Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements, Toulouse, France. 15 Observatoire Midi-Pyrenees, 31400 Toulouse, France. 16 University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: wboynton{at}lpl.arizona.edu.
Using the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer onboard Mars Odyssey, we have identified two regions near the poles that are enriched in hydrogen. The data indicate the presence of a subsurface layer enriched in hydrogen overlain by a hydrogen-poor layer. The thickness of the upper layer decreases with decreasing distance to the pole, ranging from a column density of about 150 g/cm2 at -42° latitude to about 40 g/cm2 at -77°. The hydrogen-rich regions correlate with regions of predicted ice stability. We suggest that ice, with an abundance of 35% ± 15% by weight, is the host of the hydrogen in the subsurface layer.
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