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Megatsunamis and microbial life on early Mars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2022

Hadi Veysi Open the ORCID record for Hadi Veysi [Opens in a new window]
Hadi Veysi*
Affiliation:
Geology Department, Faculty of Earth Science, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, The Islamic Republic of Iran
*
Author for correspondence: Hadi Veysi, E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

It is currently believed that early Mars had a vast and shallow ocean, and microbial life may have formed in it, albeit for a short geological time. The geological evidence indicates that during the existence of this ocean, large collisions occurred on the surface of Mars, which led to the formation of megatsunamis in its palaeo-ocean. Previous research has reported on the effects of tsunami waves on microbial ecosystems in the Earth's oceans. This work indicates that tsunami waves can cause changes in the physico-chemical properties of seawater, as well as tsunami-affected land soils. These factors can certainly affect microbial life. Other researchers have shown that there are large microbial communities of marine prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) in tsunami-induced sediments. These results led us to investigate the impact of tsunami waves on the proposed microbial life in the ancient Martian ocean, and its role in the preservation or non-preservation of Martian microbial life as a fossil signature.

Keywords

Martian ancient megatsunamis Martian palaeo-oceanmicrobial fossilsmicrobial life
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , June 2022 , pp. 188 - 196
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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