Mars could have had huge oceans and beaches like on Earth at some point, based on a new study that has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A global team of scientists, including researchers at Penn State University (USA) and Guangzhou University (China), reviewed data from China's Zhurong rover and discovered concealed layers of rocks on Mars' surface. These layers are strong evidence for the fact that there used to be a big ocean in Mars' northern hemisphere.

“We’re finding places on Mars that used to look like ancient beaches and ancient river deltas. We found evidence for wind, waves, no shortage of sand—a proper vacation-style beach,” said Benjamin Cardenas, assistant professor of geology at Penn State and a co-author of the study.

Signs of an ancient ocean

From radar data from the Zhurong rover, the scientists found similarities to Earth's “foreshore deposits” – layered sediments that occur when waves drive sand and silt onto a beach.

"This immediately caught our attention, as it suggests the presence of waves, indicating a dynamic interaction between air and water," Cardenas explained.

More studies showed that the angles of these sediment layers are very similar to those in coastal areas on Earth. This makes the theory that Mars once had a large body of water in the past.

The results contribute to mounting evidence that Mars was a wet and Earth-like planet in the past. The planet probably had a prolonged era of warm, stable conditions, lasting millions of years—long enough to sustain microbial life, researchers say.

Mars is currently a barren and arid world, but these findings bring scientists closer to knowing what happened there in the past and whether life ever existed there.

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