They were photographed in September 1998 in Chasma Boreale, a giant trough at Mars' north polar cap.
PASADENA, California (CNN) -- The summer has warmed up the south of Mars, melting away much of its icy polar cap.
Before the research papers of the IPY's scientists are published, for those living on the southern polar cap, climate change is already palpable.
The shape of the polar cap indicates that it is composed primarily of water ice, with a volume of 1.2 million cubic kilometres.
But the volume of the Martian north polar cap is less than half that of the Greenland ice cap, and about four percent of the Antarctic ice sheet.
If a large body of water once existed on the red planet, the remainder of the water must now either be stored below the surface and in the much smaller south polar cap, or have been lost to space.
Nobody is currently predicting a full scale polar ice cap melting, not even in worst case scenarios.
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In the spring and summer of recent years, the polar ice cap has receded more quickly and more dramatically.
Are you terrified by the melting polar ice cap, rising sea levels, extreme weather, and other growing threats from global warming?
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In 1958, the USS Nautilus crossed under the north polar ice cap.
The 13-day trek across the frozen polar ice cap was in aid of the charity Walking With The Wounded which supports injured ex-servicemen and women.
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Many scientists predict that the entire north polar ice cap may be completely gone during summer months in the first term of the next president.
Still, a late entry by the former vice president could add enough heat to the contest to melt a few more inches of polar ice cap.
Many scientists predict -- shockingly -- that the entire North Polar ice cap may be completely gone during summer months during the first term of the next president.
Using ever fancier technologies, the oil business is drilling in deeper waters, more difficult terrain and even in the Arctic (which, as global warming melts the polar ice cap, will perversely become the next great prize in oil).
Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) is a climatologist who realizes, as a slice of the polar ice cap slides into the sea, that the end of the world (or, at any rate, of that half of the world that drives S.U.V.s) is nigh.
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