Curiosity rover data indicate that large lakes once existed on Mars
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029273
Los Angeles Times : Between 3.2 billion and 3.8 billion years ago, Mars had lakes of liquid water on its surface, according to a study published in Science . John Grotzinger of Caltech and his colleagues base their finding on pictures taken by the Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012. The researchers say the texture and distribution of sedimentary rock strata in Mars’s Gale Crater resemble those of river deltas on Earth, which are formed by the deposition of sediment by streams as they run into lakes. In fact, they say, Gale Crater probably held a series of lakes, lasting anywhere from thousands to millions of years. Whether Mars’s water cycle lasted long enough for any life-forms to develop remains to be discovered.
