Curiosity Finds First Martian Ripple Strata From 1 Ancient Sandstorm

Q: This ancient storm reveals Mars' windy past, but what does it suggest about the planet's long-lost oceans?

It suggests Mars’ vanished oceans likely existed under a thicker, more active atmosphere that could drive both strong sand-moving winds and waves on open water. The newly identified “climbing wind ripple strata” show that ancient Mars was not only wet at times but also meteorologically energetic. In Gale Crater, where Curiosity found the rock record of an hours-long sandstorm, other evidence has already shown ancient lakes and water-laid sediments. Taken together, the picture is of a planet where wind and water once operated side by side, rather than a simple shift from wet to dry. Related modeling strengthens that interpretation. Recent PlanetWaves research indicates that on ancient Mars, even modest winds could have generated waves on lakes and possibly an ocean because lower gravity makes wave formation easier. Scientists estimate that as Mars later lost atmosphere and surface pressure fell, stronger winds would have been needed to raise similar waves, while liquid water became harder to sustain. So the storm record does not prove an ocean by itself. But it supports the broader case that early Mars had a denser atmosphere capable of powering an active hydrological system, including lakes and perhaps seas, before the planet dried out. It also suggests that when those oceans or large lakes existed, they were probably not calm: winds may have stirred their surfaces, shaped shorelines, and helped record the transition from a wetter Mars to the cold desert seen today.

1 articles · Updated · Science@NASA · Jul 16

NASA’s Curiosity rover identified what scientists say is the first evidence on Mars of climbing wind ripple strata—sediment layers formed when sand ripples stacked atop one another during an intense ancient storm.
Billions of years ago, an hours-long sandstorm likely drove the process, and the deposits later hardened into multilayered rock that preserves the event as a rare record of early Martian winds.
Jawbone Canyon is where Curiosity spotted the rocks in an image taken on Dec. 12, 2024, the mission’s 4,391st Martian day, or sol.
A paper describing the discovery appeared on the cover of Geology on July 1, 2026, underscoring its significance for reconstructing Mars’ environmental history.