Brent Watson <brentjwatson@yahoo.com> wrote:

I believe they are saying that the ones [spheroids]on Mars are volcanic in origin.

Actually, if you review the news reports of yesterday, you will discover that the scientist favor the spheriouds being created by water, since they are randomly scattered at various depths. Had they been generated by volcanic/meteorite action, as they say, the spheroids would have been deposited in very narrow layers, corresponding to the time of the events. Also, as I understand, equally important, if not even more important than the amount of surface/sub-surface water is the length of time the water was present in the enviornment. While they still do not have a handle on just how lone water was on the surface. The determination that the outcroppings are sedimentary, indicates the water was around for some significant amount of time to have produced those depositions. So the sedimentary rock indicates both presence of water in large quantities and for significant periods of time, both needed for the kinds of life forms we can imagine. But the question whether the water was around long enough for life, as we know it, to have evolvled has still not been answered, according to what I read. Wade Wade C Starks