Beacon Valley, Antarctica: Mars analog and home of ancient ice

Abstract: Ice has been detected near the Mars poles, but there is significant interest
in also finding ice in the Mars equatorial regions. If ice is to be found in
these regions, it is likely buried below the surface, and slowly sublimating
away into the atmosphere.

Abstract On Earth, similar conditions exist in the Antarctic McMurdo Dry
Valleys, with Beacon Valley being a particularly good analog to the
conditions on Mars. Beacon Valley has a deep layer of ice under a surface
with deposits that are assumed to be approximately 8 Myr old. If the ice is
of similar age as the surface, the question is why sublimation has not forced
it further below the surface after all this time. Snow melt during
particularly warm summers has been suggested as a potential mechanism for
periodical recharge of the ice, and we investigate that possibility based on
data collected during one unusually warm summer and one colder summer. The
data suggest that snow melt did in fact not increase during the warm summer.