Mars was struck billions of years ago by an asteroid that caused a tsunami of up to 250 meters in height. Scientists now say they have discovered an impact crater on our neighboring planet.
In the place where the space rock hit the surface of Mars, there is a giant crater with a diameter of 110 kilometers. There may have been a large shallow ocean out there at that time.
Using stones and rocks near the crater, which they named Bohl, the scientists estimated that the impact occurred about 3.4 billion years ago. Based on Paul’s size, the researchers estimated the asteroid to be between 3 and 9 kilometers across.
The researchers also simulated the massive tsunami with a computer simulation. For example, they discovered that waves can be up to 250 meters high and can travel about 1,500 kilometers.
The impact is believed to have released 13 million megatons of TNT energy. By comparison, the most powerful atomic bomb ever detonated on Earth has a yield of more than 50 megatons of TNT energy. That hydrogen bomb (Tsar Bomba) was detonated during a test in 1961 by the Soviet Union.
The effect is similar to that of a meteor that struck Earth 66 million years ago Dinosaurs finished. The crater of this meteorite (Chickxulub crater) is located near Mexico and is comparable in size to Buhl.
Between four and three billion years ago, a fifth of Mars was likely covered in shallow oceans. At that time, space rocks may have caused regular tsunamis on the planet. For example, in 2019, the Lomonosov crater was associated with another giant tsunami.
About three billion years ago, the oceans on Mars began to dry up, according to NASA. During several unmanned missions to the Red Planet, the space agency has discovered many traces of those oceans.
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