Study: Glaciers, not flowing rivers, sculpted Mars’ valleys

Ancient life on Mars could have existed amid icy glaciers on  Red Planet's valleys and t flowing rivers, new research published in journal Nature Geoscience on August 3 revealed. As per study, Mars’ sourn highlands are dissected by hundreds of valley networks, which are evidence that water once sculpted surface, however, climate simulations that predict a cold, icy ancient Mars.  

Researchers conducted  study of Mars’ valley network morphometry, using principal-component-based analysis with physical models of fluvial, groundwater sapping, and glacial and subglacial erosion. While it was discovered that valley formation on Red Planet involved all of processes, subglacial and fluvial erosion were  predominant mechanisms on planet. This proved that re was a presence of subglacial channels and ice sheets among valley networks. study, refore, contricts earlier ories about planet having a warm, wet climate with abundant liquid water. 

Researchers from Cana and United States studied over 10,000 Martian valleys and drew a comparison with glacial valleys on Earth. observation contricted hyposis that rivers, rainfall, and oceans once existed on red planet. Le author Anna Grau Galofre, former Ph.D. student in department of earth, ocean, and atmospheric sciences employed new scientific techniques and found similarities between valleys on Mars with Canian Arctic Archipelago.

For last 40 years, since Mars's valleys were first discovered, assumption was that rivers once flowed on Mars, eroding and originating all of se valleys, Le Author Grau Galofre said in published study. But re are hundreds of valleys on Mars, and y look very different from each or, she ded.

[This simulated view shows Mars as it might have appeared during height of a possible ice in geologically recent time]

Le author Galofre said that if one looked at Earth from a satellite "you see a lot of valleys, some of m me by rivers, some me by glaciers, some me by or processes, and each has a distinctive shape. Mars is similar, in that valleys look very different from each or, suggesting that many processes were at play to carve m."

[Coll showing Mars's Maumee valleys (top half) superimposed with channels on Devon Island in Nunavut (bottom half). shape of channels, as well as overall network, appears almost identical. Im Credit: Anna Grau Galofre/ Nature Geoscience Journal]

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It is a "cold, dry, polar desert"

Researchers found Martian valleys and subglacial channels on Devon Island in Canian Arctic were similar. "Devon Island is one of best analogs we have for Mars here on Earth—it is a cold, dry, polar desert, and glaciation is largely cold-based," co-author Gordon Osinski, a professor in Western University's department of earth sciences and Institute for Earth and Exploration said. Co-author Mark Jellinek, a professor in UBC's department of earth, ocean, and atmospheric sciences said that se findings and results demonstrate that only a fraction of valley networks match patterns typical of surface water erosion, which is in marked contrast to conventional view. He ded, “Using geomorphology of Mars' surface to rigorously reconstruct character and evolution of planet in a statistically meaningful way is, frankly, revolutionary.” 

[UBC researchers have concluded that early Martian landscape probably looked similar to this im of Devon ice cap. Credit: Anna Grau Galofre/ Nature Geoscience Journal]

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(Ims Credit: NASA)