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Updated: Jul 19, 2025

Scattering And Absorption of Light in Planetary Regoliths
Published on: July 1, 2019
Evidence for marine sedimentary rocks in Utopia Planitia: Zhurong rover observations
Long Xiao1,2, Jun Huang1,2, Timothy Kusky3,4
1State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, Planetary Science Institute, School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China.
Abstract:
Decades of research using remotely sensed data have extracted evidence for the presence of an ocean in the northern lowlands of Mars in the Hesperian (∼3.3 Ga), but these claims have remained controversial due to the lack of in situ analysis of the associated geologic unit, the Vastitas Borealis Formation (VBF). The Tianwen-1/Zhurong rover was targeted to land within the VBF near its southern margin and has traversed almost 2 km southward toward the interpreted shoreline. We report here on the first in situ analysis of the VBF that reveals sedimentary structures and features in surface rocks that suggest that the VBF was deposited in a marine environment, providing direct support for the existence of an ancient (Hesperian) ocean on Mars.
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