Megatsunamis and microbial life on early Mars

Abstract

It is currently believed that early Mars had a vast and shallow ocean, and microbial life may have formed in it, albeit for a short geological time. The geological evidence indicates that during the existence of this ocean, large collisions occurred on the surface of Mars, which led to the formation of megatsunamis in its palaeo-ocean. Previous research has reported on the effects of tsunami waves on microbial ecosystems in the Earth's oceans. This work indicates that tsunami waves can cause changes in the physico-chemical properties of seawater, as well as tsunami-affected land soils. These factors can certainly affect microbial life. Other researchers have shown that there are large microbial communities of marine prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) in tsunami-induced sediments. These results led us to investigate the impact of tsunami waves on the proposed microbial life in the ancient Martian ocean, and its role in the preservation or non-preservation of Martian microbial life as a fossil signature.