--- title: "Study: Ancient Mars Was Covered in Ice Sheets, Not Rivers" description: "According to a new study, a large number of ancient valleys on the Martian surface today were formed by subglacial meltwater below — not flowing rivers." date: "2020-08-03" modified: "2020-08-03" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/study-ancient-mars-ice-sheets-rivers" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Mars" - "Science & Energy" - "Space" tags: - "glacial melting" - "life on mars" - "mars" - "rivers" --- # Study: Ancient Mars Was Covered in Ice Sheets, Not Rivers ![According to a new study, a large number of ancient valleys on the Martian surface today were formed by subglacial meltwater below — not flowing rivers.]() *\Image: NASA\* According to a [new study]() by a group of Canadian researchers published in the journal *Nature Geoscience* today, a large number of ancient valleys on the Martian surface were formed by water melting below massive sheets of glacial ice — not free-flowing rivers, as [previous research]() suggests. The new research challenges the "warm and wet ancient Mars" hypothesis, which posits that Mars was once [covered in massive river systems](), fed by rain and large oceans of liquid water. The study also follows a recent analysis of high-resolution imagery collected by the HiRISE camera on board NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, [which concluded]() that large rivers likely once flowed on the surface of Mars billions of years ago. "For the last 40 years, since Mars’s valleys were first discovered, the assumption was that rivers once flowed on Mars, eroding and originating all of these valleys," Anna Grau Galofre, former PhD student at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and lead author of the new study, said in [a statement](). To come to their conclusion, Grau Galofre and her team compared over 10,000 Martian valleys to channels formed underneath glaciers of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. To their surprise, the channels were extremely similar. "But there are hundreds of valleys on Mars, and they look very different from each other," she added. "If you look at Earth from a satellite you see a lot of valleys: some of them made by rivers, some made by glaciers, some made by other processes, and each type has a distinctive shape." "These results are the first evidence for extensive subglacial erosion driven by channelized meltwater drainage beneath an ancient ice sheet on Mars," co-author Mark Jellinek, professor in UBC’s department of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences, said in the statement. They found only a small number of channels were likely formed on the surface — a big departure from previous research. By examining climate models of ancient Mars, they also found that the Red Planet was also likely much colder than predicted during the time that the valleys were formed. Interestingly, a thick sheets of ice could also improve the chances of ancient life on Mars surviving. The ice would have blocked solar radiation, especially during a time when Mars had no magnetic field. **READ MORE:** [Frozen Mars? Ancient valleys show planet may have been covered in ice]() \[*CNET*\] **More on Mars rivers:** *[Scientists Find New Evidence of Ancient Rivers on Mars]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()