Mars was once much wetter than it is today.
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00:00This is Mars, the dusty red planet as we know it today, but it wasn't always that way.
00:09Scientists now believe Mars was once a planet covered in massive oceans, and they've just
00:13found signs of an absolutely huge tsunami that once occurred there.
00:16Around 3 billion years ago, a massive asteroid likely 5.6 miles wide, or around the size
00:21of the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs on Earth, struck Mars.
00:24That impact caused an explosion equivalent to a 13 million megaton bomb, digging a massive
00:29crater into the Martian surface some 68 miles wide, in the area which is now known as the
00:34Pole Crater.
00:35What resulted after was an immense tsunami that was sent traveling across the surface
00:39of the red planet.
00:40According to the study, the massive wave likely reached heights of over 820 feet high, and
00:45traveled as far as 932 miles from where the initial impact was.
00:49Along the way, it deposited huge bits of rocks and debris across the landscape, objects that
00:54are still detectable to this day, something the researchers say mirrors the evidence of
00:57our planet's own life-destroying asteroid impact from 66 million years ago.