Could massive floods on Mars have caused climate change? New 3D maps suggest the red planet suffered major upheaval
- Scientists have found evidence of flooding on Mars billions of years ago
- New maps show buried channels beneath the surface of the red planet
- Experts now trying to establish whether the floods caused climate change
Scientists have discovered evidence of massive flooding on Mars billions of years ago.
New maps of the subsurface of Mars show for the first time buried channels below the surface of the red planet.
Mars is thought to have been cold and dry over the past 2.5 billion years, but the channels suggest evidence of flooding, the scientists say.
The location of the 1000 km Marte Vallis channel system on Mars. The dashed box highlights the area shown in the next image. The background shows the global topography of Mars
They are now investigating whether such floods could have induced climate change.
The channels were found in Elysium Planitia, an expanse of plains along the equator, and the youngest volcanic region on the plane.
The 3D maps were constructed using data from the shallow radar on board the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.
The team included researchers from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Planetary Science Directorate in the Southwest Research Institute and the Smithsonian Institution.
They are now studying the source and scale of the channels to comprehend recent Martian hydrologic activity and determine whether such floods could be behind climate change on our planetary neighbour.
Geologist Gareth Morgan, at the National Air and Space Museum's Centre for Earth and Planetary Studies, said the work was an important advancement in understanding how water shaped Mars.
3D visualization of the buried Marte Vallis channels beneath the Martian surface. Marte Vallis consists of multiple perched channels formed around streamlined islands
He said: ‘Our findings show that the scale of erosion was previously underestimated and that channel depth was at least twice that of previous approximations.
‘The source of the floodwaters suggests they originated from a deep groundwater reservoir and may have been released by local tectonic or volcanic activity.
‘This work demonstrates the importance of orbital sounding radar in understanding how water has shaped the surface of Mars.’
The orbiting spacecraft, using sounding radar, was able to map the buried channels and establish that the floods originated from a now buried portion of the Cerberus Fossae fracture system.
The study is published in the journal Science.