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Hypothesis of an ancient northern ocean on Mars and insights from the Zhurong rover

Nature Astronomy (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Various landforms suggest the past presence of liquid water on the surface of Mars. The putative coastal landforms, outflow channels and the hemisphere-wide Vastitas Borealis Formation sediments indicate that the northern lowlands may have housed an ancient ocean. Challenges to this hypothesis are from topography analysis, mineral formation environment and climate modelling. Determining whether there was a northern ocean on Mars is crucial for understanding its climate history, geological processes and potential for ancient life, and for guiding future explorations. Recently, China’s Zhurong rover has identified marine sedimentary structures and multiple subsurface sedimentary layers. The unique in situ perspective of the Zhurong rover, along with previous orbital observations, provides strong support for an episodic northern ocean during the early Hesperian and early Amazonian (about 3.6–2.5 billion years ago). The ground truth from future sample-return missions, such as China’s Tianwen-3 or the Mars sample-return programmes by NASA, ESA and other agencies, will be required for a more unambiguous confirmation.

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Fig. 1: Global map of the putative Martian ancient shorelines and hydrological landforms.
Fig. 2: Morphological evidence supporting the ancient shorelines.
Fig. 3: Depositional regions of the Martian northern hemisphere.
Fig. 4: Timeline of major geologic units related to the Martian ancient northern ocean.
Fig. 5: Targets observed by Zhurong supporting an ancient northern ocean.
Fig. 6: Key targets in the Utopia Planitia.

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Data availability

The Tianwen-1 data used in this work are processed and produced by Ground Research and Application System (GRAS) of China’s Lunar and Planetary Exploration Program, provided by China National Space Administration (http://moon.bao.ac.cn). The HiRISE data are available in the NASA Planetary Data System (pds.jpl.nasa.gov). The CTX global mosaic is accessible at http://murray-lab.caltech.edu/CTX/. The MOLA data are available at https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/search/map/mars_mgs_mola_dem_463m.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42273041). We thank L. Xiao and J. Zhao for the discussion on an Martian ancient northern ocean.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, Planetary Science Institute, School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China

    Le Wang & Jun Huang

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J.H. designed this research. J.H. and L.W. discussed and analysed the results and their implications. L.W. prepared the figures and wrote the manuscript with edits from J.H.

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Correspondence to Jun Huang.

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Wang, L., Huang, J. Hypothesis of an ancient northern ocean on Mars and insights from the Zhurong rover. Nat Astron (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-024-02343-3

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