On Mars found traces of catastrophic floods

Researchers from the USA and France Analysis of the pictures from the Marshode Perseverance made it possible to identify the remains of the delta of the ancient river in the lake, the bottom of which is now the crater of the drier. In addition, scientists have discovered evidence of catastrophic floods at the later stage of the lake. The article of scientists was published in the journal Science.

The study of satellite images of Mars showed that 3.7 billion years of crater drier was the lake, which fell a river. Analysis of the snapshots of two chambers of the persistent on Mars in February 2021, Rover Perseverance further revealed that it was exposed to storm floods that transferred cobblestones for tens of kilometers, as a result of which their fan-shaped cluster was formed – like earthly delta.

Researchers led by specialists from the laboratory of the NASA reactive movement was collected together the pictures of the remainder of the codiac – parts of this accumulation, partially destroyed erosion – and could clearly allocate the layers of bottom sediments. They measured their thickness, bias and transverse length – and came to the conclusion that the deposits were applied to the water in the lake, and not by other geological processes. Such deposits were noticed in the main accumulation, which allows researchers to say that it used to be the bottom of the river delta.

In the upper layers of the delta, the researchers discovered the engines of large cobblestones – a diameter to a meter and weighing up to several tons. According to the estimates of researchers, they were racing a flood speed up to nine meters per second, transported to three thousand cubic meters of water per second. What caused such cataclysms in the late stage of the life of the lake, the researchers cannot say. At the same time, the lower layers are formed from much smaller stones – which indicates the originally calm their river app.

/Media reports.