The Martian Ocean Hypothesis used to be controversial. But research like this shows that the planet almost certainly had oceans.
The map is focused on a region of Mars informally named Aeolis Dorsa. Aeolis Dorsa is a trough-like region in Mars’ northern hemisphere that’s about 500 km wide and 900 km long To the east and west of the region are plains 2 km high, named Zephyria Planum and Aeolis Planum. To the south are steep slopes that rise up to the southern hemisphere. The region is about 750 km east of Gale Crater, where MSL Curiosity is exploring.
The topographic map helped the researchers show definitive evidence of a roughly 3.5-billion-year-old shoreline with substantial sedimentary accumulation, at least 900 meters thick, that covered hundreds of thousands of square kilometres. Credit: Benjamin Cardenas / Penn State.As part of their study, the authors organized Aeolis Dorsa’s 6,500 km of fluvial ridges into 20 systems.
It only makes sense to look for sedimentary basins on Mars for clues on that planet’s history. Water is critical in our quest to understand Mars and its ancient habitability. And stratigraphy is how researchers can understand how all that sediment built up over time as changing water levels caused the shoreline to advance and retreat.the paleogeography at Aeolis Dorsa over 5 timesteps; all cases differ from the modern topography,” the authors explain in their paper.
This is where stratigraphy comes in. The stratigraphy in Aeolis Dorsa is very similar to Earth’s; it just wasn’t apparent decades ago.
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