Are There Ice Caps on Mars?

At the north and south poles of Mars lie thick stacks of flat-lying sheets of dust and water ice: the ice caps. These are called Planum Boreum (north) and Planum Australe (south). Both were laid down like pages in a book during countless cycles of climate changes.

What are ice caps on Mars made of?

Like Earth, Mars has frozen polar caps, but unlike Earth, these caps are made of carbon dioxide ice as well as water ice. During the southern hemisphere's summer, much of the ice cap sublimates, a process in which the ice turns straight back into gas, leaving behind what is known as the residual polar cap.

What if we melted Mars ice caps?

The polar ice caps contain a lot of water, enough to cover the entire planets surface a number of meters deep. But that's actually very little considering the water on Earth for instance is enough to cover it 2,000 meters deep. So even with the poles entirely melted Mars would be a vastly drier place than Earth.