Lest anyone doubt my position regarding liquid water on Mars, I believe I should post it, especially in light of the my debate below with Bob Clark For the record, I have virtually no doubt (though I do see the merits of Nick Hoffman et al.'s arguments) that liquid water carved many of the features on the Martian surface. Whether it currently exists on the surface or not is very problematic for me. I need *hard* evidence, not selectively or mistakenly interpreted (and often ambiguous) data points. Malin and Edgett provided compelling evidence for its presence in the *near-surface* in the geologically recent past, though there are serious disagreements with this interpretation that cannot be ignored. I do, however, believe that subsurface liquid water aquifers are a definite possibility that needs to be tested with future missions. At any rate, as Nick Hoffman noted at

http://www.habitablezone.com/space/messages/13470.html

he and I are collaborating on a piece for SpaceDaily on the recent GeoMars 2001 conference. I'll be making the making the case for water, and I think it's safe to say that Nick will doing the opposite ;-) It should be interesting. BTW, I have some new insights to relate about the putative Oceanus Borealis debate. Stay tuned.

Alex R. Blackwell
University of Hawaii