Scientists have explained the process of forming pebbles on Mars

Back in 2012, the Curiosity rover discovered stones on the Red Planet whose characteristics are very similar to those of ordinary terrestrial river pebbles. Some scientists doubted that it was pebbles, but experts conducted a detailed study of the find, and now they conducted a simulation of the formation of pebbles. As a result, recent doubts that these stones seem to have disappeared.

Several billion years ago, liquid water existed on Mars, and there were a lot of it - real rivers flowed on the surface of the Red Planet for a long time. It was running water that broke in the stones, making them smoother. According to scientists, the river carried some stones for many tens of kilometers, while both pointed pebbles and smooth pebbles were found on the site of the former rivers.

Interestingly, to date, no one has modeled the process of formation of pebbles - scientists explained everything in words, but the mechanism itself was not specified. And planetologists studying the surface of Mars decided to create a model for the formation of Martian pebbles. The team tested the geometric model using the data collected earlier. At the very beginning, scientists passed pieces of sandstone through a special drum in the laboratory, and recorded the changes that pieces of rock underwent. After that, rock samples from a mountain river in Puerto Rico were studied.


The geometric model was tested in a canyon from New Mexico, with a relief similar to the Martian

The study began in the upper part, where the water flows very quickly, and the stones break off from the rocks and fall into the river. Next, scientists studied the change in the rock, taking samples downstream. Alluvial rock samples in New Mexico Canyon have also been studied. All data obtained during the study were in excellent agreement with the geometric model developed by scientists.


Photo: NASA

According to scientists, the average distance traveled by pebbles found by the rover on Mars is about 50 kilometers. Curiosity found pebbles in Gale Crater, and, according to scientists, the stones fell into ancient rivers from the slopes of the crater.