section_path: Hydrology
section_name: Hydrology
paragraph_text: Hydrology
  
  While Mars contains water in larger amounts, most of it is dust covered water ice at the Martian polar ice caps. The volume of water ice in the south polar ice cap, if melted, would be enough to cover most of the surface of the planet with a depth of 11 metres (36 ft).
  
  Water in its liquid form cannot prevail on the surface of Mars due to the low atmospheric pressure on Mars, which is less than 1% that of Earth, only at the lowest of elevations pressure and temperature is high enough for water being able to be liquid for short periods.
  
  Water in the atmosphere is small, but enough to produce larger clouds of water ice and different cases of snow and frost, often mixed with snow of carbon dioxide dry ice.