Mars 'river pebbles' prove the planet once was awash in water

Mars 'river pebbles' prove the planet once was awash in water


(NaturalNews) Shocking new evidence points out that water could have
been present on Earth's neighboring planet Mars. The evidence suggests
that water may not have only present, but the planet could have been
awash and overflowing with a network of rivers and streams. NASA's
latest rover, Curiosity, has observed rounded pebbles on the
150-kilometer wide Gale Crater.

These rounded pebbles found on
the floor of the crater have a smooth appearance identical to rocks
found in Earth's rivers. Simple erosion explains this effect. As rock
fragments are carried along the bottom of a stream, their edges are
"sanded" or "rounded," and ultimately settle in an overlapping fashion.
This overlapping alignment of rounded pebbles is now being observed on
Mars.

Scientists believe that previous images of the red planet
from satellites indicated that water had been active on the planet.
These ground discoveries are only confirming what they think is true -
that these huge equatorial bowls, craters, and divots were crafted by
flowing water.

Upon the discoveries, Dr Rebecca Williams from the Planetary Science Institute
announced, "For decades, we have speculated and hypothesized that the
surface of Mars was carved by water, but this is the first time where
you can see the remnants of stream flow with what are absolutely
tell-tale signs."

Waste deep streams could have been present

The
pebbles in Gale Crater were first discovered in September of 2012.
Their size, ranging from two to 40 millimeters, suggests that wind
couldn't be solely responsible for the pebble erosion. The pebbles
were also observed in different layers of dark and light color shades;
further pointing out that water may have carried pebbles and settled
them in slow layers over time.

To bolster this evidence, the
rover's remote sensing laser detected a mineral called feldspar, which
on Earth, quickly crumbles and dissolves in moving water. Scientists believe that the water must not have been more than waist-deep.

Professor Sanjeev Gupta from Imperial College
in London estimates "That the flow velocities were walking pace,
approximately - it's not something we can absolutely reconstruct, but it
gives us a rough idea, and these are minimum values."

Layers of settled conglomerates suggest water activity

They've
also observed these conglomerates of rock touching one other in an
arrangement that points to past river activity. These "clasts" as they
call them, are cemented together in a way that suggests they settled due
to water flow
activity. The specific arrangement of clasts is called imbrications in
the scientific community. These arrangements are a true sign of water
flow activity, since the elongated pebbles are stacked "like a row of
toppled dominos."

Researchers have been studying the captured
images in detail and are writing scholarly reports. Look for their
report to show up in Science magazine this year.

Right
now, researchers are working to use a Mahli "hand lens", which will help
them study close-up high resolution images of the crater's bedrock. The
lens will help them estimate the probable conditions in which the
sediments were formed and help them examine the exact nature of the
outcrops in relation to other environmental factors.

The rover is
set to continue exploration on the red planet, as scientists try to
piece together where the water flowed. They hypothesize that a network
of small streams could have spread from the mouth of the Gale Crater and
into a place they called Peace Vallis, where loads of rounded gravels
have already been discovered.

Opposing scientific views

Opposing
scientific views caution that the images captured in mars of rounded
pebbles could actually prove that water never existed. The rounded
pebbles could have actually been created by volcanic eruptions that
hurled molten rock into the air. Frozen in thin air, the round molten
droplets could have been formed in Mars' thin atmosphere, before ever
falling to the ground. This process, like water erosion, is observed on
Earth.

The best way to know for sure if these pebbles were caused by water activity would be to bring samples back from Mars.
In this way, pebbles could be differentiated; water-eroded rocks would
be observed solid and volcanically formed rocks would be tested for
their internal, porous, sulphurous bubbles.

source:-
http://www.naturalnews.com/040610_water_on_Mars_pebbles_space_exploration.html