Just a few decades ago we kept wondering if there was ever water on mars.
Now, after much research, we not only know that there was indeed liquid water on Mars, but that it continues to flow today. But, in addition to all this, we now know something else: There were tsunamis on Mars, giving rise to the Red Planet offering the image of a huge ocean in its northern hemisphere.
In fact, according to the data published in Scientific Reportsup to two mega-tsunamis In mars because of the meteorite impact. Its footprint will now be found on the surface of our neighboring planet, and it is possible that we may still find remains of ancient life in these geological footprints.
At least, that’s the theory that we had based mainly on the amount of water that we suppose was on Mars; however, observational data is scarce, and we cannot be certain that such an ocean existed on Mars. Likewise, the scientists of the Planetary Science Institute from Tucson (Arizona) claim that they do have evidence that such ocean existed because of two major tsunamis on Mars.
Thanks to the detailed analysis of the northern surface of the Red Planet, carried out by J. Alex P. Rodrguez and his colleagues from the Cornell Universityhave been discovered remains of an ancient ocean located at the north pole of the planet. The footprint would be the coastline of Mars and its interior areas, indicating that there were up to two meteorite impacts with millions of years of difference between them that, consequently, would have produced two large tsunamis on Mars. The waves resulting from these tsunamis will have reached the interior, leaving the geological footprints that we can see today.
The shocking figures of the great tsunamis on Mars
As these researchers comment, these meteorite impacts they will have produced craters up to 30 km widegenerating tsunamis up to 120 meters high. To give you an idea, the great tsunami that swept Japan in 2011 barely reached a maximum height of 39 meters.
Initially, the first meteorite impact On the surface of Mars, it created channels for the return of water to the sea, which are still visible today in the form of sedimentary deposits. The second meteorite impact Millions of years later, with a colder Mars, causing the water that returned to the sea to quickly turn into ice, without being able to reach the ocean again. In their path, the water lobes maintained limits of flow, which would suggest, according to the researchers, that the water would be saturated with salt (the salt keeps the water in a liquid state, and this liquid state is essential for life).
In the future, the idea would be to focus research on future missions to Mars in these regions flooded millions of years ago by liquid water from tsunamis, particularly where these water lobes and displaced sediments formed.
