Scientists Unearth 3-Billion-Year-Old Beach Near a Primordial Ocean on Mars
1 min read
Summary
Scientists working with the China National Space Administration’s (CNSA) Mars rover Zhurong have claimed to have found beach deposits from an ancient Martian ocean.
Using a technique called ground-penetrating radar, which probed down to 100m below the surface, the data revealed many characteristics of the buried rocks, including their orientation.
All the layers in the rocks dip shallowly into the basin, away from the paleoshoreline, following the pattern of sediment deposition in an ocean on Earth.
Further, the rocks are more electrical than volcanic flows, suggesting a sedimentary composition.
This indicates that an ocean may have covered nearly half the planet 3.6 billion years ago, far earlier than believed.
