Journal
SCIENCE ADVANCES
Volume 5, Issue 3, Pages -Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aav7710
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Funding
- NASA [NNX15AM49G, NNX16AG55G]
- STFC [ST/K502388/1]
- UK SA [ST/R002355/1]
- NASA [NNX15AM49G, 807600] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
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Mars is dry today, but numerous precipitation-fed paleo-rivers are found across the planet's surface. These rivers' existence is a challenge to models of planetary climate evolution. We report results indicating that, for a given catchment area, rivers on Mars were wider than rivers on Earth today. We use the scale (width and wavelength) of Mars paleo-rivers as a proxy for past runoff production. Using multiple methods, we infer that intense runoff production of >(3-20) kg/m(2) per day persisted until < 3 billion years (Ga) ago and probably < 1 Ga ago, and was globally distributed. Therefore, the intense runoff production inferred from the results of the Mars Science Laboratory rover was not a short-lived or local anomaly. Rather, precipitation-fed runoff production was globally distributed, was intense, and persisted intermittently over > 1 Ga. Our improved history of Mars' river runoff places new constraints on the unknown mechanism that caused wet climates on Mars.
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