A mega tsunami on Mars could have been triggered by an asteroid impact similar to the devastating impact that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
The giant wave, which measures up to 250 meters high, was created about 3.4 billion years ago by the impact of an asteroid or comet in a shallow ocean in the northern lowlands of the Red Planet. scientists believe.
Until now, the location of the crater left by the asteroid was unclear.
Researchers at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, analyzed maps of the surface of Mars, created from photographs taken by previous missions to the planet.
They identified a crater – called Pohl – 110 km in diameter, which they believe was caused by the asteroid.
It is located in an area that previous studies indicated was submerged by ocean water about 120 meters below sea level.
Scientists believe it formed 3.4 billion years ago based on its position above and below rocks previously dated to that time period.
They ran simulations of asteroid and comet collisions to establish what kind of impact Pohl might have created and whether it might have caused a mega-tsunami.
A simulation that formed a crater with similar dimensions to Pohl was triggered by a 9 km asteroid that encountered heavy ground resistance, releasing 13 million megatons of TNT energy.
Another 3-kilometer asteroid, which encountered weak ground resistance, released 0.5 megatons of TNT energy.
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One megaton of TNT energy has the equivalent force of one million tons.
The amount of energy released by the most powerful megaton ever tested was approximately 57 megatons of TNT energy.
In both simulations, the 110 km diameter craters generated megatsunamis that reached up to 1,500 km from the center of the impact site.
Analysis of the giant wave triggered by the 3 km asteroid impact suggested that the tsunami could have measured 250 meters into land.
Pohl’s impact has been compared to that of the Chicuxlub Crater buried under the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, after which the dinosaurs became extinct.
Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers said of their breakthrough: “The location of the site along an upland-oriented lobe aligned with erosion grooves supports a mega-tsunami origin.”
They added: “Our findings allow the rocks and soil salts at the landing site to be of marine origin, inviting scientific reconsideration of the information gathered from the first in situ measurements on Mars.” .