Scientists have discovered eight cliffs of nearly pure water ice on Mars, some of which stand nearly 100 meters tall. The discovery points to large stores of underground ice buried only a meter or two below the surface at surprisingly low martian latitudes, in regions where ice had not yet been detected. Each cliff seems to be the naked face of a glacier, tantalizing scientists with the promise of a layer-cake record of past martian climates and space enthusiasts with a potential resource for future human bases. Scientists discovered the cliffs with a high-resolution camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, revisiting the sites to show their subsequent retreat as a result of vaporization, and their persistence in the martian summer. The hunt should now be on, scientists say, for similar sites closer to the equator.

中文翻译：

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在火星上发现冰崖

科学家们在火星上发现了八个近乎纯净的水冰悬崖，其中一些高达近 100 米。这一发现表明，在火星的低纬度地区，在尚未探测到冰的地区，埋藏在地表以下仅一两米处的大量地下冰。每个悬崖似乎都是冰川的裸露面，吸引着科学家们，他们承诺对过去火星气候和太空爱好者的分层记录，以及未来人类基地的潜在资源。科学家们在火星勘测轨道飞行器上用高分辨率相机发现了这些悬崖，重新访问这些地点以显示它们随后因蒸发而退缩，以及它们在火星夏季的持续存在。科学家们说，现在应该开始寻找靠近赤道的类似地点。