Space Exploration

[ysabetwordsmith]

Topographic map reveals vast ocean on Mars three billion years ago

Across the northern lowlands, the terrain holds an unusually broad belt of flat ground far below Mars’ reference level.

Tracing that belt across the planet, Abdallah S. Zaki at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), linked it to the kind of coastal margin oceans leave behind on Earth.

Rather than preserving one sharp edge, that ancient coast seems to have survived as a wide zone built and reshaped over long stretches of time.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

If they're going to fin proof of ancient Martian life, there would be likely candidate. Life tends to form around Coastal margins. It's also generally one of the most densely inhabited ecosystems, and best at preserving remains as fossils.

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Well reasoned.