One-third of the area of ​​Mars used to be the sea?

Scientists claim that, at the time of today 3.5 billion years, 36% of the surface of Mars had been covered by seawater.

Through the data and images obtained during the past 20 years, scientists have conducted a simulation of the circumstances of the Martian past in the laboratory. Since then, scientists have concluded that, at 3.5 billion years ago, one-third of the Martian surface could be covered by seawater.

3.5 billion years ago a third of Mars's surface was covered by sea water. (Photo: NatGeo) .

Previously, many scientists had written articles claiming that Mars had water. However, this is the first time scientists have assembled and used a large number of data to simulate the Mars situation using computers.

Scientists say the data used in this experiment are all data collected by the US National Aeronautics Agency (NASA) and the European Aeronautics Agency from the 1990s. the last century until the present.

Computer simulations show that , at 3.5 billion years ago, 36% of Mars's surface was covered by seawater, equivalent to the Earth's Atlantic area . According to the calculation of water reserves on the surface of Mars then about 1/10 of the amount of water on Earth.

In the report published in Nature Geoscience , the scientists claim that the types of data show that the Martian surface has at least 52 geological deposits of river deltas , in more than half of the last rivers flow into the sea.

Scientists believe that, at 3.5 billion years ago, when Earth first appeared, it was likely that on Mars a water circulation system was formed, including rain, flow, clouds. and groundwater.

However, computer simulations still cannot be the final evidence of the existence of water on Mars. That's not to mention that scientists still haven't explained the reason for the disappearance of this huge amount of water on Mars.

Under the plan, a new Mars exploration project with a total cost of up to $ 485 million will be launched by NASA in 2013. The project is expected to help people find more solid evidence of existence of water on the red planet.