How an Ocean-Sized Lake May Have Formed on Ancient Mars

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By Saima May Sidik, Eos/AGU. 

Excerpt: Geological evidence on Mars indicates that 3.6 billion years ago, an intense pulse of water carved rivers and lakes across the planet, an abrupt shift from the preceding 500-million-year era of much gentler fluvial activity. Researchers have long puzzled over the cause. A new study by Buhler shows, paradoxically, that the collapse of the Martian atmosphere and entry into a colder climate may have melted the polar ice cap and triggered global-scale flooding. ...In total, about 4% to 40% of the water ice could have melted, an amount of water equivalent to between 20% and 200% of the water currently found near the surface on Mars.... 

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