The authors suggest these eruptions may also have led to conditions that allowed these ice deposits to continue to exist under the surface today, and the findings could be useful in identifying potential sites for exploration in future manned missions.

We had thought most of Mars’ ice was at its poles, but recent measurements have suggested there is also ice nearer the planet’s equator, leading scientists to ponder how it got there. The simulations suggest volcanic eruptions may explain this, releasing steam that then froze in the frosty Martian atmosphere around the equator. If this ice was buried under volcanic debris, it could still be there today, the simulations suggest.

The conditions predicted by these models in the event of multiple volcanic eruptions over time could help explain the detections of elevated near-surface hydrogen in the equatorial regions of Mars, with implications for human exploration of the red planet.