Mars, commonly known as “The Red Planet” has a mysterious past. One that scientists have been persistently trying to uncover, yet to little avail as of today. However, technology has advanced greatly over the past few years. Using advanced imaging from spacecraft, scientists are able to locate something that may change our hypothesis about this planet.
Using high resolution imagery from NASA and European Space Agency orbiters, over 15,000 mounds were discovered jutting out of the Martian surface, some as massive as the state of Texas. Even though the Martian mounds are several times larger, and much older, their shape closely resembles the Monument Valley mesas along the Arizona-Utah border. Like most landscapes formed on Earth, the Monument Valley mesas were formed by water erosion. And the Martian mounds are no different.
“Our findings reveal that water was present both at the surface and in the subsurface of this region over geological timescales, between 4.0 (billion) and 3.8 billion years ago,” Dr. Joe McNeil, a planetary scientist and postdoctoral researcher at London’s Natural History Museum, says. “The mounds were originally part of the highlands, composed of hundreds of meters of clay-rich rock that formed in the presence of liquid water. Their erosion over hundreds of kilometers shows that the highlands extended much (farther) north than they do today, providing new insights into the ancient geography and hydrology of Mars.”
Just like the Grand Canyon, and several other famous rock formations, these mounds are made up of layers. When water runs over land, it carries minerals that slowly settle and compress into solid stone. This happens over millions—or billions—of years. McNeil stated, “Each mound is made up of a series of layers, each of which is a record of a past event. The oldest are at the bottom and are made up of rock that is around four billion years old. For a geologist, looking at these layers is like looking at pages of a book—each one tells a story!”
But that isn’t all. While trekking on the Red Planet, the Mars rover Curiosity caught a glimpse of what scientists believe used to be a shallow lake.
Carved into the rocky surface, is a basin about half a mile long. “Billions of years ago, waves on the surface of a shallow lake stirred up sediment at the lake bottom, over time creating rippled textures left in rock,” according to NASA news.
Similar to the mounds, this lake was shaped by water and sediment. All of this new evidence further proves the hypothesis that Mars used to be inhabitable. With the new Mars rover Perseverance, NASA and other space agency scientists have high hopes for what will be discovered in the coming years.
Sources:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/25/science/martian-mounds-mystery/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/10/world/mars-nasa-curiosity-rover-ancient-waters-scn/index.html
