Drastic Climate Change Carved Up Mars, and May Still Be Happening

Brown University researchers recently looked at detailed images taken by NASA's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) of 479 gullies in Mars' southern hemisphere. These systems appear to be made from the erosion of crater walls, where glaciers millions of years ago melted and shifted in the wake of massive temperature shifts.

Amazingly, no glaciers can be found there today, with Mars' conditions being largely dry save for its massive polar ice caps. In all, the researchers found conclusive evidence that at least two ice ages (likely more) occurred within the last two million years.

What's more, the processes that led to and from the ages could still be going on, if at a very slow and difficult-to-notice rate. That adds to recent evidence that the Red Planet's subsurface and atmosphere are also still active.

"I think people have this idea of Mars as an inactive place, that it is now as it has been for billions of years," added geologist James Head. "But it seems likely that climate cycles and global climate change are still occurring."

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