The European Space Agency says a space probe scanning the surface of Mars has found what appears to be a dust-covered frozen sea near the Martian Equator.
In a statement Wednesday, the space agency says the water appears to have originated beneath the surface of Mars and to have come out in what the agency calls a "catastrophic flood" through a series of fractures.
The statement says the sea probably originated no more than five million years ago.
It says the water spread out over an area of about 720,000 square kilometers, about the size of Turkey, and with a depth of about 45 meters.
The statement says scientists presented the findings on Monday at a conference on Mars in the Netherlands.
Some information for this story provided by Reuters.