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A series of giant tsunamis swept across an ocean on Mars 3.4 billion years ago, a new study has found.
The tsunamis would have completely "swamped the shoreline" of the planet.
Researchers from the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson have reported their findings in the *Scientific Reports*journal.
The team hopes that its research may help establish whether or not Mars had an ocean in its northern hemisphere. The existence of the ocean had been much debated, with parts of the shoreline that seem to indicate an ocean having been eroded or destroyed – but an event like a tsunami would explain these discrepancies. "Imagine this enormous red wave coming towards you, up to 120 metres high. It would have been pretty spectacular," lead author Alexis Rodriguez told Nature.
The team used satellite mapping technology to identify formations that they believe could only have formed after a tsunami.
The craters found by the team are around 30km in diameter. The researchers also found "water-ice-rich boulders...which extend tens to hundreds of kilometers over gently sloping plains and boundary cratered highlands, as well as backwash channels where wave retreat occurred."
The events could only have happened billions of years ago before Mars became a dry, cold planet, and could prove that the ocean did exist when conditions on the planet were both warmer and wetter.
The team will now be travelling to Tibet, where cold mountain lakes could help advance the theory of the lost Martian oceans.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
