Mars had a surface environment that supported liquid water about 3.5 billion years ago, according to a study of river deposits spread across the red planet. A region of Mars named Aeolis Dorsa contains some of the most spectacular and densely packed river deposits seen on the planet, researchers said. Together, these measurements demonstrate that the studied river deposits once filled incised valleys. Cardenas and colleagues conclude that similar falling and rising water levels in a large water body forced the formation of the paleo-valleys in their study area. The conclusion that such large water level fluctuations and coastline movements were recorded by these river deposits suggests some long-term stability in the controlling, downstream water body, which would not be expected from catastrophic hydrologic events, they said.

Source: dna September 19, 2017 07:27 UTC