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| Image Source: BBC. Did early Mars have a vast northern ocean? |
Scientists have located an impact crater linked to powerful tsunamis that swept across part of ancient Mars.
The team believe an asteroid triggered 150m-high waves when it plunged into an ocean thought to have existed on northern Mars three billion years ago.
Lomonosov crater in the planet's northern plains fits the bill as the source of tsunami deposits identified on the surface.
Details were outlined at the 48th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
Although the idea has lost some of its currency in recent years, some scientists think an ocean might once have filled the vast lowland region that occupies the Red Planet's northerly latitudes.
Growing evidence that tsunami waves washed over the boundary between the southern highlands and northern lowlands help strengthen the hypothesis.
BBC Science: Impact crater linked to Martian tsunamis, Paul RinconNASA: Giant Tsunamis Battered the Coastlines of an Early Martian Ocean
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