Tsunamis On Mars: Mega Storms Once Washed Across Ancient Oceans On Mars

Since the debris flows with the water, it will generally flow downhill. The formations on Mars, however, flow uphill, which is an indication of how strong the flow was. The signs are consistent with the action of a tsunami. Virginia Gulick, a planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, is co-author of the study.

"A tsunami deposit is like a flood deposit; it's just in the reverse direction."

The study's authors concluded that not one but two giant tsunamis had washed through the area. They theorize that the two tsunamis occurred about 3.4 billion years ago and within a few million years of each other. The first tsunami roiled over an area about 800,000 square kilometers (300,000 square miles) with waves between 10 and 120 meters (400 feet) tall. The second was even larger, affecting an area of about 1 million square kilometers or 400,000 square miles. To put it into perspective, after the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011, the waves that hit the shore rose to about 39 meters or 127 feet in height.

What happened to the oceans on Mars? Mars' magnetic field is much weaker than the one we experience here on Earth. That means it has little protection against the solar wind, a blast of charged particles that flows out from the Sun throughout the solar system. The solar wind played havoc with the atmosphere and weather, resulting in the dry and barren Red Planet we know today. The lobe-like formations may also hold clues to the existence of life on ancient Mars. Virginia Gulick is quoted in the LA Times.

"If there was life that formed, say, in the large body of water, then tsunami deposits might have brought up some of that material that might show evidence for microbial activity in the past."

"These lobes froze on the land as they reached their maximum extent and the ice never went back to the ocean – which implies the ocean was at least partially frozen at that time."

The oceans of Mars were salty but also cold. Despite the chill, they may still have been able to support life as the salt content would have kept at least some of the water unfrozen. Fairén compares the oceans on Mars more to the frigid waters of the Great Lakes in winter than the sunny beaches of California. Fairén and the NASA team plan on continuing their analysis of data on the tsunamis on Mars to find suitable areas for future missions to explore.

[Image via NASA/JPL/USGS]