A US spacecraft orbiting Mars has provided evidence of an ancient crater lake fed by groundwater, adding further support to theories that the Red Planet may once have hosted life, NASA said Sunday. These new observations suggest the formation of the carbonates and clay in a groundwater-fed lake within the closed basin of the crater," The 57-mile-wide crater sits at the low end of a regional slope several hundreds of miles long The latest findings indicate "a more complex Mars than previously appreciated, with at least some areas more likely to reveal signs of ancient life than others."

Awesome. Maybe NASA can send up a pontoon rover that can be "motaboatin" on the lake, small jet skis etc. I'm not making fun of this discovery it is truley neat the information we are getting on this planet and others, chalk one up for the good ole USA. I just couldn't resist...

Spectrometer data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows traces of carbonate and clay minerals usually formed in the presence of water at the bottom of the 1.4-mile (2.2-kilometer) deep McLaughlin Crater.

These new observations suggest the formation of the carbonates and clay in a groundwater-fed lake within the closed basin of the crater

The crater lacks large inflow channels, so the lake was likely fed by groundwater, scientists said.The 57-mile-wide crater sits at the low end of a regional slope several hundreds of miles long and, as on Earth, groundwater-fed lakes would be expected to occur at low elevations.