Thousands of glaciers found on Mars, all covered by dust

Rock formations on the surface of Mars taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover. - Reuters

Mars has thousands of glaciers buried beneath its dusty surface, enough frozen water to blanket the planet with a 1.1m-thick layer of ice.

The glaciers are found in two bands in the mid-southern and mid-northern latitudes. Radar data, collected by Mars-orbiting satellites, combined with computer models of ice flows show the planet has about 150 billion cubic metres of water locked in the ice, according to a study published in this week’s issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letter.