Figuring out the ancient climate on Mars has been tricky. While evidence gathered from orbit and on the surface seems to indicate there must have been a lot more water on Mars early in its history, questions remain on how much water and in what form.
A new study has now quantified the amount of precipitation needed to create many of the landforms visible today on Mars surface.
The paper, published in the journal Geology says there was enough rainfall and snowmelt to fill lakebeds and river valleys 3.5 to 4 billion years ago on the Red Planet, and that precip must have occurred worldwide.
Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin found that precipitation must have been between 13 and 520 feet (4 to 159 meters) in a single episode to fill the lakes and, in some cases, provide enough water to overflow and breach the lake basins. While that’s quite a large range of precipitation, the researchers said it helps narrow the gap in understanding which Mars’ climate models are most accurate.
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