Original URL:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/21/mars_geysers/ Martian
pole freckled with geysers Unlike anything on Earth Every
spring, the southern polar cap on Mars almost fizzes with carbon
dioxide, as the surface is broken by hundreds of geysers
throwing sand and dust hundreds of feet into the Martian "air".
The discovery was announced in the journal Nature by researchers
at the Arizona State University, based on data from the Thermal
Emission Imaging System on the Mars Odyssey orbiter. Images sent
back by the probe showed that as the sun began to warm the pole,
the polar cap began to break out in dark spots. Over the days
and weeks that followed, these spots formed fan-like markings,
and spidery patterns. As the sun rose higher in the Martian sky,
the spots and fans became more numerous. "Originally, scientists
thought the spots were patches of warm, bare ground exposed as
the ice disappeared," said lead scientist Phil Christensen. "But
observations made with THEMIS on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter t