A new analysis of data from the Curiosity rover suggests that many of the craters on present-day Mars were once inhabited by rivers.

“We found evidence that Mars is likely a river planet,” said Benjamin Cardenas, an associate professor of earth sciences at the University of Pennsylvania and lead author of the new paper announcing the discovery. “We see signs of this all over the planet.”

In a published study Geophysical Research LettersResearchers used numerical models to simulate thousands of years of erosion on Mars and found that widespread crater formations called lava and cape landforms are likely remnants of ancient river beds.

The study was the first to map the erosion of ancient Martian soil by training a computer model on a combination of satellite data, Curiosity images, and 3D scans of stratigraphy (or layers of rock, called strata, that accumulate underground over millions of years). The bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. The analysis revealed a new interpretation of widespread Martian crater formations that have never been associated with eroded fluvial deposits until now.

“If we better understand how these fluvial deposits can be interpreted stratigraphically by thinking of today’s rocks as layers of sediment accumulated over time, we can have everything we can learn about Mars,” Cárdenas said. “This analysis is not a snapshot, but a record of changes. What we see on Mars today is not a landscape frozen in time, but the remnants of an active geological history.”

Previous studies of satellite data from Mars have identified erosion-related landforms called fluvial ridges as possible candidates for ancient fluvial deposits. Using data collected by the Curiosity rover in Gale Crater, the team found signs of fluvial deposits that were not associated with fluvial ridges, but rather similar landforms that had never been associated with ancient fluvial deposits.

“This suggests that there may be undiscovered fluvial deposits elsewhere on the planet, and that much of the Martian sediments may even have been formed by rivers during the habitable period of Martian history,” Cárdenas said. said. “On Earth, river corridors are crucial to life, chemical cycles, nutrient cycles and sediment cycles. “Everything points to these rivers behaving similarly on Mars.”

In developing their computer model, Cárdenas and his team found a new use for 25-year-old scans of the Earth’s stratigraphy. Cárdenas explained that scans collected by oil companies at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico provide an excellent comparison to Mars.

The team modeled Martian erosion using 3D scans of real, recorded stratigraphy on Earth. When they ran the simulation, the model revealed eroded Martian landscapes that looked nearly identical to the landforms observed by the Curiosity rover inside Gale Crater, forming topographic benches and headlands instead of river ridges.

“Our research shows that there may be many more rivers on Mars than previously thought, which certainly creates a more optimistic view of ancient life on Mars,” Cárdenas said. said. “It offers a vision of Mars where much of the planet once had conditions suitable for life.”