Like the earth, the land of the planet Mars has also experienced a megatsunami due to the fall of a giant asteroid. The megatsunami is thought to have occurred approximately 3.4 billion years ago.
Evidence for the occurrence of a megatsunami on Mars was obtained from data from the Viking 1 Lander spacecraft which landed on the surface of Mars in 1976.
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Viking 1 Lander |
The Viking 1 Lander lander touched down in the Chryse Planitia area, not far from the end of the Maja Valles giant channel.
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Maja Valles |
Maja Valles itself is a large canal system formed by water erosion. Large channels of this kind are quite common on the planet Mars.
The 1,600 km long Maja Valles Channel begins in the Juventae Chasma region, a large canyon on Mars, and ends in the Chryse Planitia region. The width of Maja Valles varies between 50 and 150 km.
The area where the Viking 1 Lander landed was filled with scattered boulders. It is suspected that the stones were brought by a giant tsunami wave.
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Pohl Crater |
The discovery of a large meteor impact crater strengthens this suspicion. This 68 mile diameter crater is about 900 km northeast of the Viking 1 Lander landing site.
The existence of the impact crater which was later named Pohl Crater was identified based on data from NASA's orbiter, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Pohl Crater is in the lowlands, in the northern part of Mars. An area that was once thought to be a shallow sea, billions of years ago.
The giant asteroid crashed into the shallow sea, creating a large, deep crater and creating a tsunami wave as high as 250 m.
Megatsunamis hit the Martian land hundreds of miles away. Leaving a trail of rock-filled areas.
Pohl Crater was formed by the impact of an asteroid measuring 9 km, which was traveling at a speed of 10.6 km/s. The giant asteroid hit the shallow ocean floor, creating a powerful explosion equal to 13 million megatons of TNT or 56 zettajoules.
The resulting shock wave created a megatsunami with an initial height of up to 500 m.
The height of the tsunami wave halved, which is about 250 m, when it reached land.