Mars Asteroid Strike: Ancient 'Planet Killer' Space Rock Causes Mega Tsunami on the Red Planet 3.4 Billion Years Ago

A Martian mega tsunami may have occurred billions of years ago when an ancient "planet killer" space rock hit the surface of Mars and left a crater, according to a new study led by scientists from the United States. The new discovery is in reference with previous research that an asteroid or comet impact in an ocean in the northern lowlands of Mars may have caused the super tsunami.

The difference with the recent study is that it identified an impact crater that caused the ancient Martian tsunami. The crater called Pohl has a diameter of 110 kilometers and is located in the Martian northern lowlands, which scientists in previous studies believed to be covered by an ocean. Authors of the new research estimate the crater formed around 3.4 billion years ago based on its position with rocks.

In line with the study, the findings point towards the possibility the Martian asteroid impact also led to linkage that it could be similar with the Chicxulub asteroid strike, which wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs on Earth 66 million years ago. The Chicxulub impact is believed to be the latest mass extinction event geological history.

Martian Mega Tsunami

The new paper about the ancient Martian asteroid strike and mega tsunami was published in the journal Scientific Reports on December 1, wherein researchers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Planetary Science Institute, and their colleagues said they have found the crater that caused the mega tsunami on the Red Planet 3.4 billion years ago from an asteroid.

The research team asserted that the Mars asteroid strike is similar to the Chicxulub impactor, which was also recently found in another study to have caused a mega tsunami when it struck what is now the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

The authors of the study analyzed maps of Mars' surface, which was made possible by combining images from previous Mars missions and led to the identification of the Pohl impact crater that may have caused the mega tsunami, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) cites.

With this, the planetary scientists involved in the study also confirmed the existence of an ancient body of water where the mega tsunami channeled and the asteroid slammed into.

Also Read: Why NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission is Important to Making Mars Journey a Reality

Mars Meteor Strikes

Just like Earth and other planetary and lunar objects in our solar system, Mars is also susceptible to meteor strikes, which can either be asteroids, comets, or meteorites.

In October 2022, two NASA spacecraft, one on the surface and one on the orbit, recorded meteor strikes that made craters hundreds of feet wide on the Red Planet, according to scientists who published their discovery in the journal Science, as cited by The Guardian.

The craters, which some are nearly 500 feet across, were observed by NASA's InSight lander and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. However, these craters are apparently not as old as the Pohl crater identified by the Scientific Reports study.