Use data collected by China’s Zhurong Roverplanetary researchers have identified hidden layers of rocks beneath the Martian surface, which strongly suggests the existence of the ancient North Sea.
“We’re finding locations on Mars that looked like ancient beaches and deltas of ancient rivers,” said Pennsylvania researcher Benjamin Cardenas, who co-authored the study.
“We found evidence of a lack of wind, waves and sand. It’s a proper vacation style beach.”
The now inactive Zhurong Rover landed on Mars in 2021 in an area known as Utopia Planitia and was open for a year between May 2021 and May 2022.
From the time when Mars had a thicker atmosphere and warmer climate, it traveled about 1.9 km (1.2 miles) to cliffs that are considered ancient coastlines from the time period.
Along its path, the rover probed up to 80 m (260 feet) under the surface using ground penetration radar.
This radar is used to detect not only underground objects such as pipes and utilities, but also irregular features.
The radar image shows thick layers of material along the entire path, all facing upwards towards the estimated shoreline at an angle of about 15 degrees, roughly the same as the angle of beach sediments on Earth.
This thickness of sediment on Earth would have taken millions of years to form. It suggests that Mars had long-lived water with the effect of waves to distribute sediments along the sloped coastline.
Radar also allowed to determine the size of the particles in these layers and matched the particles of sand.
However, the deposits do not resemble the ancient wind-blowed dunes common on Mars.
“This quickly stood out to us because it suggested there were waves. That means there was a dynamic interface between air and water,” Dr. Cardenas said. I did.
“Looking back at the places where the earliest life on Earth developed, it was in the interaction between the ocean and the land, which paints an ancient habitable environment, and conditions for microbial life. You can embrace the
“Comparing Mars data with radar images of coastal sediments on Earth, we found impressive similarities.”
“The dip angle observed on Mars fell within the range seen in coastal sedimentary deposits on Earth.”
“We see the coastline of this body of water has evolved over time,” Dr. Cardenas said.
“We tend to think of Mars as a static snapshot of a planet, but it was evolving. The rivers were flowing, the sediments were moving, the land was constructed and eroded. This type of sedimentary geology tells us how landscapes look and how they evolved. And, importantly, identifying where you want to look for your past life. It will help you.”
“The discoveries show that Mars was a much damper location than it used to be today, further supporting the hypothesis of the past oceans that covers most of the planet’s North Pole.”
The study also provides new information on the evolution of Mars’ environment, suggesting that life-friendly warm, wet periods can potentially last tens of millions of years.
“The power of Zhurong Rover allowed us to understand the geological history of the planet in a whole new way,” said the University of California, a professor of Michael Manga at Berkeley.
“That underground intrusion radar gives us an underground view of the planet.
“These incredible advances in technology have made it possible to realize basic science that uncovers a new mountain of information about Mars.”
result It was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Jianhui Li et al. 2025. Ancient sea coastal deposits imaged on Mars. pnas 122 (9): E2422213122; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2422213122
Source: www.sci.news
