http://mysite.verizon.net/rickmsmith/MarsOceanProject.html

The results indicate that the purported shorelines delineate two “containers” that could hold large amounts of water.

What happened next is not 100% certain, but Global Surveyor’s readings are consistent with the following scenario: “The joined fields wrapped themselves around a packet of gas at the top of the Martian atmosphere, forming a magnetic capsule a thousand kilometers wide with ionized air trapped inside,” says Brain. “Solar wind pressure caused the capsule to ‘pinch off’ and it blew away, taking its cargo of air with it.” Brain has since found a dozen more examples. The magnetic capsules or “plasmoids” tend to blow over the south pole of Mars, mainly because most of the umbrellas are located in Mars’ southern hemisphere.

Instead of protecting poor Mars from solar wind it is possible it join forces to strip the atmosphere.

Saying the issue is how long, not whether, Mars had water, the Bad Astronomer himself, Phil Plait, goes on to suggest that the issue has relevance for our own planet: It may have once been much more Earth-like, but then…