NASA’s Curiosity rover detects signs of ‘unimaginable’ mega-flooding on Mars



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1119 March

This image is a false-color composite view of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater on Mars. The blue sky is rendered to resemble the Earth to help highlight layers of stratification in the landscape.

NASA / JPL

The Home Away From Home of NASA’s Curiosity rover in Gale Crater on Mars appears to be a pretty cold place. It’s a bit windy and dusty, but it’s dry and the rocky landscape is settled and calm. It wasn’t always like that. Scientists have found evidence of brutal mega flooding in the crater’s past.

The wet history of Mars has become more important in recent years. A study published in the journal Scientific Reports this month gives us our first identification of mega-floods thanks to field observations made by Curiosity.

“The deposits left by the mega-floods had not been previously identified with the orbiter data,” co-author and astrobiologist Alberto G. Fairén said in a Cornell University statement last week.

The mega-flood is believed to have occurred around 4 billion years ago and was likely triggered by a meteor impact that warmed the ice on the planet’s surface, creating precipitation and sending flash floods across the landscape. . Cornell described these events as “flooding of unimaginable magnitude.”

The mega-floods left behind revealing evidence in the form of “giant wave-like features in the sedimentary layers of Gale Crater.” These are called “megaripples” or antidunes. The formations reach 9 meters in height and are spaced approximately 137 meters (450 feet) apart. These features seem familiar to researchers who have seen similar shapes caused by flooding of melted ice in Earth’s past.

The remaining signs of mega-flooding in Gale Crater point to a hot and humid climate long ago. “The planet had the necessary conditions to support the presence of liquid water on the surface – and on Earth, where there is water, there is life,” Fairén said.

Whether Mars was once the home of microbial life is still an open question, but it is a NASA’s Perseverance rover will investigate upon arrival in February 2021.

Water may not just be a lost relic in Mars history. Research suggests that there may be ancient underground lakes hidden on the red planet. NASA has also created a “treasure map” of water ice deposits in 2019, it might be useful for future human explorers. Those same explorers will be grateful to know that the Mars mega-floods are long gone.

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