With the success of the Curiosity Rover, the prospect of sending human beings to Mars has gained more popularity in the last few years. The Red Planet is likely to be humanity's refuge should Earth's resources become depleted. While Venus is considered the Earth's twin, the conditions in Mars is far more hospitable and viable for terraforming.

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With the increasing interest in the planet, many studies have been launched in order to find out more about Mars. These scientific endeavours have given more and more clarity to the once mysterious red dot. Just recently, scientists from the Planetary Science Institute have discovered the ancient and extinct oceans of Mars used to experience Tsunamis at a scale several times bigger than tsunamis on Earth.

According to a recent paper published by Nature and spearheaded by Alexis P. Rodriguez, most of Mars' northern lowlands were covered by a vast ocean 3.4 billion years ago. The movement of the body of water could attribute to the uncanny terrain of the planet. However, before Rodriguez' paper no proof of paleoshorelines have been documented.

Through geomorphic and thermal image mapping, the team discovered that at least two massive tsunamis, which are speculated to be a few million years apart, is instrumental in creating Mars' seemingly coastal terrains.

Despite the thoroughness of the Rodriguez' study, a few scientists remain hesitant in believing tsunamis formed Mars' terrain. According to National Geographic, some scientists argue that while an ocean on Mars is a possibility, it is hard to identify the past characteristics of the speculated Mars' ocean considering more recent erosion and changes in the surface of the planet.

"The idea of an ocean is not beyond the realm of possibility. However, much of the geology in the northern lowlands has since been obscured by younger material or eroded, so it's difficult to find much direct evidence of a past ocean," explained Joel Davis from the University College of London.

Moreover, evidences of recent earthly tsunamis like the 2004 and 2011 incident are already vanishing. In the same light, it is hard to pinpoint whether or not the terrain of Mars could be a result of tsunamis that happened several million years ago.

TagsMars, mars exploration, Ancient Tsunamis, Space, Scientists Mars, Mars 2016, Mars research