Scientists believe a mega-tsunami was caused 3.4 billion years ago on Mars by an asteroid strike similar to the devastating blow that wiped out the dinosaurs.
A mega-tsunami on Mars could have been triggered by an asteroid strike similar to the devastating blow that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
The giant wave, measuring up to 250 metres in height, was created about 3.4 billion years ago by the impact of an asteroid or comet in a shallow ocean in the northern lowlands of the red planet, scientists believe.
They identified a crater - named Pohl - measuring 110km in diameter, which they believe was caused by the asteroid.
They carried out simulations of asteroid and comet collisions to establish what kind of impact could have created Pohl and whether it could have caused a mega-tsunami.
A simulation that formed a crater with similar dimensions to Pohl was triggered by a 9km asteroid encountering strong ground resistance, releasing 13 million megatons of TNT energy
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