Mars may look like a frozen desert today, but new evidence suggests its watery past didn’t simply fade away quietly—it may have been blasted into space by powerful dust storms. Scientists have discovered that even relatively small, localized storms can hurl water vapor high into the atmosphere, where it breaks apart and escapes.

Today, Mars is known as a cold, dry desert, but its surface tells a very different story. Ancient channels, water-altered minerals, and other geological features show that the planet once had abundant water and a far more dynamic environment. Understanding how this wetter world transformed into the barren landscape we see now remains a major question in planetary science. While scientists have identified several processes that contributed to water loss, much of Mars’ missing water is still unaccounted for.

A new international study published in Communications: Earth & Environment brings scientists closer to solving this mystery. Researchers found that an unusually intense but localized dust storm was able to push water vapor high into Mars’ atmosphere during the Northern Hemisphere summer, a season previously thought to play little role in this process.