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Researchers at the Planetary Science Institute explain that the deepest basins on Mars were built up by groundwater circulation below a huge tectonic rift zone on the sides of a few of the solar system's biggest volcanic plateaus. These were formed about three billion years ago.

The basins got gradually covered by lava and water lakes from the subsurface, which pressurized sources over hundreds of millions of years. They indicate that Mars may once have harbored life.

"The temperature ranges, the presence of liquid water, and nutrient availability, which characterize known habitable environments on Earth, have higher chances of forming on Mars in areas of long-lived water and volcanic processes," Alexis Rodriguez, lead author of the paper, said in a press release. "Existing salt deposits and sedimentary structures of possible emplacement within Martian paleo-lakes are of particular astrobiological importance when looking for past habitable areas on Mars."

"This is particularly true if the discharge of early Mars groundwater, perhaps liked to hydrothermal systems that were active for billions of years, contributed to the formation of the paleo-lakes, as it is proposed in this investigation," he added.

Such paleo-lake sites on Mars has powered new theories and raised many questions. The Martian cold and thin atmosphere might have led to the formation of ponds very different from those on earth.

"In this research we propose a Tibetan region where high mountain lakes show unique sets of landforms that might explain some basin interior features in the studied region of Mars," Rodriguez said.

More research is needed to be conducted with the Chinese government. There are plans to explore this summer the Tibetan region so that their potential to act as local astrobiological analog sites can be explored.

The findings were released in the Jan. 7 issue of Planetary and Space Science.