According to a recent study just presented at the 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), Mars would have retained between 30% and 99% of the water it originally possessed trapped in the crust.
Also according to this study, the Red Planet initially had enough water to cover the entire globe with a deep layer between 300 and 1500 meters, equivalent to a volume of water similar to our Atlantic Ocean!
Personally I have never believed the version of the MAVEN team that most of the Martian water is dispersed into space as the atmospheric pressure decreases and this study seems to confirm what I have assumed for years.
I fear that this study could raise quite a fuss if taken into proper consideration; we’ll see!
Jet Propulsion Laboratory article:
“New Study Challenges Long-Held Theory of Fate of Mars’ Water.” https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/new-study-challenges-long-held-theory-of-fate-of-mars-water
Article Science:
“Long-term drying of Mars by sequestration of ocean-scale volumes of water in the crust” https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2021/03/15/science.abc7717
Article Science (PDF):
“Long-term drying of Mars by sequestration of ocean-scale volumes of water in the crust”. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/early/2021/03/15/science.abc7717.full.pdf
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