Xiao Long, Huang Jun, Kusky Timothy, Head James W, Zhao Jiannan, Wang Jiang, Wang Le, Yu Wenchao, Shi Yutong, Wu Bo, Qian Yuqi, Huang Qian, Xiao Xiao
State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, Planetary Science Institute, School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China.
Chinese Academy of Sciences Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetology, Hefei 230026, China.
Natl Sci Rev. 2023 May 18;10(9):nwad137. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwad137. eCollection 2023 Sep.
Decades of research using remotely sensed data have extracted evidence for the presence of an ocean in the northern lowlands of Mars in the Hesperian (∼3.3 Ga), but these claims have remained controversial due to the lack of analysis of the associated geologic unit, the Vastitas Borealis Formation (VBF). The Tianwen-1/Zhurong rover was targeted to land within the VBF near its southern margin and has traversed almost 2 km southward toward the interpreted shoreline. We report here on the first analysis of the VBF that reveals sedimentary structures and features in surface rocks that suggest that the VBF was deposited in a marine environment, providing direct support for the existence of an ancient (Hesperian) ocean on Mars.
数十年来，利用遥感数据进行的研究已获取证据，表明在晚赫斯珀里亚纪（约33亿年前）火星北部低地存在海洋，但由于缺乏对相关地质单元——大北方平原组（VBF）的分析，这些说法一直存在争议。“天问一号”/“祝融号”火星车的着陆点位于VBF南缘附近，并已向南朝着推测的海岸线行进了近2公里。我们在此报告对VBF的首次分析，该分析揭示了地表岩石中的沉积构造和特征，表明VBF是在海洋环境中沉积形成的，为火星上存在古老（晚赫斯珀里亚纪）海洋提供了直接证据。
