Scientists found evidence of a ‘mega-tsunami’ on Mars

August 6, 2019

Today, Mars is a cold and dry world but many scientists believe it carried water billions of years ago. A new study on the impact craters found on the surface of Mars suggests that if the red planet harboured water, it could have experienced a “mega-tsunami” that shaped the planet. This study focuses on the identification of impact craters that impacted into the ocean and are likely to have produced the tsunami. The research analysed a meteor impact site called Lomonosov, which is 120 kilometres deep, the same height as the estimated depth of the ocean.

The impact crater strongly resembles the similar marine impact sights on Earth, and so the researchers believe that this specific impact site must have been the ground zero for the “mega-tsunami” that would have ploughed across the surface of Mars. Researchers believe that the hole in the southern lip of the crater could have been the result of the ocean roaring back from that direction.