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Asteroid strike triggered 250-metre mega-tsunami on Mars, scientists believe | Science & Tech News



A super-tsunami on Mars may have been triggered by an asteroid strike similar to the devastating one that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

Scientists believe that the giant wave, up to 250 meters in height, was created about 3.4 billion years ago by the impact of an asteroid or comet in a shallow lowland ocean north of the red planet.

So far, the location of the crater left by the asteroid remains unclear.

Researchers at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, analyzed maps of the surface of Mars, created from photographs of previous missions to the planet.

They have identified a crater – named Pohl – 110km in diameter that they believe was caused by an asteroid.

It is located in an area that previous studies have shown to be submerged by seawater at a depth of about 120 meters below sea level.

Scientists believe it was formed 3.4 billion years ago based on its position above and below older rocks during this time period.

They conducted simulations of asteroid-comet collisions to determine what type of collision could create Pohl and whether it could cause a super-tsunami.

A simulation of a crater formation similar in size to Pohl’s triggered by a 9-kilometer asteroid encountering strong ground resistance, releasing 13 million megatons of TNT energy.

Another 3 km long asteroid encountered weak ground resistance released 0.5 megatons of TNT energy.

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One megaton of TNT has the same force as one million tons.

The amount of energy released by the most powerful megaton ever tested is about 57 megatons of TNT.

In both simulations, craters with a diameter of 110km generated massive tsunami waves reaching as far as 1,500km from the center of impact.

Analysis of the giant wave caused by the 3-kilometer asteroid impact showed that the tsunami could have been measured 250 meters over land.

Pohl’s impact is likened to the impact of the Chicuxlub crater buried under the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, after which the dinosaurs became extinct.

Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers said of their breakthrough: “The location of the site along a plateau-facing lobe that aligns with erosional ridges supports the superwave origin. God.”

They added: “Our findings suggest that the rocks and soil salts at the landing site are of marine origin, calling for a scientific review of the information gathered from the first in-situ measurements on stars. Fire.”

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