(ORDO NEWS) — The European space agency ESA has demonstrated the first detailed image of the surface of Mars.
The image clearly shows complex geological formations, which, according to the authors of the study, are traces of ancient rivers and streams.
The picture and its brief description can be found on the official ESA website.
It was obtained using the high resolution stereo camera (HRSC) installed aboard the Mars Express orbiter. The image shows the slopes of a vast volcanic plateau called Thaumasia Planum.
The researchers explain that the tallest objects that can be seen in the image are about 4,500 meters higher than the lowest objects. In short, this area is indeed a very complex geological structure.
By the way, scientists have established that the process of its formation ended about 3.7-3.8 billion years ago.
That is, the resulting image literally gives us the opportunity to look into the past of Mars and understand what it was like when the Earth was just being formed.
Based on the fact that for four billion years the landscape on this plateau has not changed much, scientists began to study its individual fragments.
They drew attention to the structures, which in the picture look like numerous furrows. Modeling has shown that these “scratches” on the surface of the Red Planet are nothing more than traces of water flows.
Probably about four billion years ago, numerous rivers and streams flowed through this plateau, as well as subsurface streams.
The water gnawed away the surface rocks, leaving behind a series of broken grooves, reminiscent of scratches and scars carved into the rocks.
Although Mars no longer shows signs of active tectonics, this has not always been the case, scientists say.
In this case, too, the crust of the Red Planet in the studied region experienced significant stresses due to tectonic activity. As a result, deep surface cracks were formed, through which liquid water flowed.
The latter gradually turned the tectonic faults into real polished channels, making them wider and deeper than their original dimensions.
Analysis of these channels indicates that there was much more water on the surface of Mars about 3.8 billion years ago than previously thought.
As the authors of the study say, this time was turbulent, when many of the geological features of Mars known to us were just being formed.
Probably, at that time, far from us, volcanoes woke up on Mars, and at some point the valley of Thaumasia Planum was extensively covered with volcanic ash and dust.
However, then the cooled lava flows began to cut through the water. By the way, the origin of these water flows for scientists is still a mystery.
It is established that they appeared at different heights, which means that water could seep through the subsurface layers of Mars.
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