Did an Enormous Asteroid Cause a Super Tsunami That Devastated Mars? Researchers Think So

According to Science Alert, there was a point when Mars was wet and conquered by strong tsunamis. This leads space enthusiasts to wonder what could have caused such massive devastation.

Thanks to extensive efforts, recent research revealed how an enormous asteroid played a significant role in causing this catastrophe. Science Alert reports that the impact of the asteroid's crash was so extensive that it could be compared to the dinosaur-erasing event, Chicxulub Impact, roughly 66 million years ago.

Evidence of an Enormous Asteroid Found on Mars

In a recent study published in Scientific Reports, a team of researchers directed by Alexis Rodriguez, a planetary scientist from the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona, spotted a huge crater.

The researchers dubbed the crater Pohl. This crater was found within an area cleared out by devastating flood erosion. Science Alert notes that the area could have been the end of what was once an ocean.

When the Viking 1 of NASA descended on Mars way back in 1976, it landed near Maja Valles, a huge system of flood channeling. In this expedition, Viking 1 has a strange observation. The observed features were not typically expected to result from a super flood. Instead, it was a plain full of boulders.

(Photo: Unsplash / Planet Volumes)

ALSO READ: Mars Experienced Tsunamis Three Billion Years Ago: Impact Crater Showed Proof Of Ocean

Two Super Tsunamis Took Over Mars

In a 2016 study, Rodriguez noted that strong tsunami waves caused such a phenomenon. These waves may have intensely resurfaced the edges of the ancient ocean on Mars.

Back then, the team assumed that two tsunamis were caused by different impacts roughly 3 and 3.4 billion years before. Because of several simulations, scientists thought that the Lomonosov crater was the reason for the latter tsunami.

However, scientists stayed in the grey regarding what could have caused the former tsunami. The northern region, where scientists think an ocean could have been, is covered with numerous craters that make it hard to study.

Rodriguez's team looked through various maps of Mars to see if any impact craters could be connected to super tsunamis.

Pohl: the Culprit Behind the Second Tsunami

The team then came across Pohl, a crater stationed around 900km northeast of where Viking 1 landed. It is around 120m below what scientists assume to be sea level.

Considering how the rocks that covered the crater were dated roughly 3.4 billion years ago, the team thought Pohl might have also been shaped during this period. Aside from that, Science Alert notes that the crater was stationed quite near flood-eroded surfaces filled with hypothesized deposits of megatsunamis. This suggests that the crater was created due to sea-related impacts.

The scientists performed simulations to test their assumptions. Upon doing so, they noted two simulation scenarios that fit the actual site.

The researchers noted that their simulation largely matched the margins of the mapped former tsunami.

Like the Chicxulum impact, the impact the researchers noted also took place in a shallow sea setting, produced a cavity within the ground that had a similar size, and caused a tsunami that was more than 200m high.

The team also notes that their findings show that the soil salts and rocks spotted in the landing site have origins in the sea. These findings may spur reconsidering the data gathered during the first original measurements on Mars.