Curiosity observations linked to subsurface water flow beneath Martian dunes

Researchers at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) report evidence that water once moved beneath sand dunes in Mars’ Gale Crater, suggesting the planet may have supported habitable conditions for longer than previously believed. The findings, based on NASA’s Curiosity rover observations, are detailed in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, published on 10 November 2025 (DOI: 10.1029/2024JE008804).

The investigation, led by Dimitra Atri, Principal Investigator of NYUAD’s Space Exploration Laboratory, with research assistant Vignesh Krishnamoorthi, compared Curiosity’s observations with naturally cemented dune formations in the United Arab Emirates desert that developed under comparable environmental conditions on Earth. The study indicates that ancient dunes in Gale Crater slowly hardened into rock after long-term contact with subsurface water billions of years ago.

According to the researchers, water from a nearby Martian mountain seeped into the dunes through small cracks, saturating the sand from below and depositing minerals such as gypsum, a mineral also found in Earth’s deserts. The presence of such minerals can trap and preserve traces of organic material, making them valuable targets for future missions seeking evidence of past life.

“Our findings show that Mars didn’t simply go from wet to dry,” said Atri. “Even after its lakes and rivers disappeared, small amounts of water continued to move underground, creating protected environments that could have supported microscopic life.” The study highlights subsurface environments as promising locations to search for signs of ancient life and offers new insight into the planet’s environmental evolution.

The paper, “Aeolian Sediment Lithification From Late-Stage Aqueous Activity in the Gale Crater: Implications for Habitability on Mars,” is authored by Vigneshwaran Krishnamoorthi, Dimitra Atri, James Weston, Marieh B. Al-Handawi, and Panče Naumov. Supported by the NYUAD Research Institute, the study was conducted at NYUAD’s Center for Astrophysics and Space Science, in collaboration with James Weston of NYUAD’s Core Technology Platform and Panče Naumov’s research group.