The new project for creating a geological map of Mars made it possible to confirm the hypothesis of the existence in the past of a huge lake with a diameter of 2 thousand kilometers and a depth of eight kilometers, on the site of the present plain of Hellas in the southern hemisphere of the planet, the press service of the Institute of Planetology (USA) reports.
Scientists from this institute, led by Dr. Leslie Blimaster, prepared a detailed geological map of the region, based on data from many Martian probes, including the Viking Orbiter, Mars Odyssey and several others.
Analysis of high-resolution images revealed in the east of the Hellas Plain - a circular depression that is the largest impact crater on Mars - sedimentary layered deposits that could have formed only if large open bodies of water existed in this area.
According to Blimaster, this type of sediment could have arisen as a result of the erosion of the mountain ring surrounding Hellas, provided that there was a giant lake in this place that occupied this entire depression, the width of which is 2 thousand kilometers and the depth is eight kilometers.
“With the help of this map, it was possible to reconcile geological data with previous studies, and establish the time of existence of this supposed lake - this is the beginning and middle of Noah's geological age, from 4.5 to 3.5 billion years ago,” - said Blimaster.
He emphasized that the new data make it possible to establish how the climate has changed in the history of Mars, how the hydrosphere of the planet has changed. At present, water on Mars exists only as a thick layer of subsurface permafrost and ice in the polar caps at the planet's poles.