An artistic rendering of Mars as it possibly looked eons ago, featuring an aquatic expanse stretching across its northern part.(Image credit: Getty Images)ShareShare by:
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Fresh proof of primeval waterways implies Mars might have been a “blue sphere”, due to a sea covering its entire north.
Cameras aboard various Mars orbiters have seized the arid vestiges of obvious river estuaries, as detailed in a study released Jan. 7 in the journal NPJ Space Exploration.
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“These structures denote the point where a waterway flowed into an ocean,” the announcement declared. “This recent study provides conclusive proof of a shoreline, and hence, of a former ocean on Mars.”
Water, water everywhere
Even though Mars exists as an arid and dusty world presently, considerable indications point to it having contained water in the ancient past. For example, Martian rovers have identified “blueberry stones” that might contain iron oxide materials that contain water. NASA’s Curiosity rover snapped images of potential “ripples” from a primeval riverbed in 2025, and several orbital missions have detected what may be extensive underground stores of water.
The recent study targeted Martian geomorphology — the examination of the landscape and its processes — and made use of various spacecraft, including the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, Mars Express and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (which just disseminated its 100,000th image).
“The uniquely detailed satellite visuals of Mars have enabled us to scrutinize the Martian terrain extensively by surveying and mapping,” elucidated Ignatius Argadestya, the study’s main author and a doctoral candidate at the University of Bern Institute of Geological Sciences and the university’s Physics Institute, in the statement.
Valles Marineris (center) stands as the most extensive canyon within the solar system, housing multiple indications of long-ago water. A segment of the canyon could have signified the shoreline where a sizable ocean and waterways converged.
“During the phase of gauging and charting the Martian images, I was able to discern mountains and valleys evoking a mountainous topography on Earth,” Argadestya conveyed. “However, I found myself particularly awestruck by the deltas that I encountered at the periphery of one of the mountains.”
The team observed possible “fan deltas,” established when sediment and granules accumulate in quiescent water. The deposits depicted in the Martian imagery exhibit substantial resemblance to existing fan deltas on Earth, as per the group; here on our sphere, these deltas congregate at entry sites where rivers empty into the sea.
Each “deposit” was mapped at a level spanning from 11,975 to 12,300 feet (3,650 to 3,750 meters) and originated roughly 3.37 billion years prior. Given that the totality of the deposits lies at practically identical altitudes and within an area situated in the northern lowlands of Mars and Valles Marineris, the investigators contend that these structures demarcate the perimeters of a long-vanished shoreline. It’s quite probable that the ocean that erstwhile coursed there spanned the entirety of Mars’ northern region, the team appended.
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Partly building on prior investigations, the scientists propose that this ancient Martian sea was on par with the size of the current Arctic Ocean, at a minimum.
“We aren’t the trailblazers in postulating the presence and scale of the ocean,” Fritz Schlunegger, a geology professor at the University of Bern and collaborator in the study, stated in the announcement. “Yet, earlier assertions were anchored in less refined data and partly on indirect reasoning. Our delineation of the sea level, on the contrary, relies on tangible verification of a coastline, afforded by our use of high-resolution visuals.”
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Elizabeth HowellLive Science Contributor
Elizabeth Howell worked as a staff reporter at Space.com from 2022 to 2024, while consistently contributing to Live Science and Space.com between 2012 and 2022. During her coverage, Elizabeth secured multiple exclusive interactions with the White House, communicated numerous times with the International Space Station, directly observed five separate human space launches across two continents, partook in parabolic flights, operated within a spacesuit, and took part in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest publication, “Why Am I Taller?” (ECW Press, 2022) is a collaborative effort with astronaut Dave Williams.
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