Ancient Ocean Coastline Clues Found On Mars; What Does It Mean?

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Ancient Ocean Coastline Clues Found On Mars; What Does It Mean?
Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

As astronomers continue to dive deep into the Red Planet’s atmosphere, it’s getting clearer that Mars once hosted rivers and lakes. However, they still haven’t been able to completely demonstrate that oceans were also a part of Mars’ ancient life. But, a new topography of the Red Planet mapped by a team from Pennsylvania State University offers new traces of ancient oceans on our neighboring planet.

 

The study was recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Planets. Researchers claim to have found evidence of a shoreline that is around 3.5 billion years old. They also noted that the sedimentary accumulation, nearly 900 meters thick, is consistent with ocean shoreline accumulation.

 

Did Oceans Exist On Ancient Mars?

“The big, novel thing that we did in this paper was think about Mars in terms of its stratigraphy and its sedimentary record,” said lead author Benjamin Cardenas, in a press release.

“On Earth, we chart the history of waterways by looking at sediment that is deposited over time. We call that stratigraphy, the idea that water transports sediment and you can measure the changes on Earth by understanding the way that sediment piles up. That’s what we’ve done here — but it’s Mars,” he added.

Cardenas explained that all of this was done with the help of normal stratigraphy and geology. His teammates made use of US Geological Survey’s software and synced it with the data gathered by NASA and its Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter.

This helped the team map out more than 6,500 kilometers of ridges from ancient rivers. The ridges were then categorized into 20 systems to show that they were once river deltas or submarine-channel belts, the remains of an ancient shoreline on Mars.

Did Mars Also Harness Life Forms?

With the presence of oceans being established, it raises important questions such as the existence of life forms on the Red Planet. "What immediately comes to mind as one the most significant points here is that the existence of an ocean of this size means a higher potential for life," Cardenas said.

While that sounds too ambitious, the newly found evidence could be a huge leap for the researchers. If an ocean existed on the planet during its warm days, the odds of hosting life also grow.

Do Mars And Earth Have Similar Histories?

As per another study, Mars might have suffered the same fate as our planet. The research suggests that the Red Planet could have hosted subterranean microbes called methanogenic microbes that produced methane as the byproduct.

Since methane is a climate driver, the scientists suggest, the microbes might have damaged Mars’ atmosphere and wiped out all the life that existed on the planet.

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