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Mars’ climate cycles, which lasted for millions of years, have left rhythmic pattern records on thick sedimentary rock layers. The 3-dimensional detail of the records was revealed by one of the telescopic cameras by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of NASA. With the use of High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, researchers reported that is was the first ever measurement of a periodic signal on the rock layers on Mars.

Inside the four craters of the Arabia Terra region in Mars, the rock layers, with similar thickness, were repeated from dozens to hundreds of times. In one crater, the Becquerel is a bundle of 10-layer patterns repeated about 10 times. It is said to correspond in the pattern of changes of Mars’ rotation axis.

Kevin Lewis, author of a report published in the Journal Science, stated, “Each layer has weathered into a stair step in the topography where material that's more resistant to erosion lies on top of material that's less resistant to erosion”.

Some of the periodic changes appear to have affected the resistance of the rock-forming sediments, thus, some of them are formed less than three-feet thick.

The principal investigator of the images, Alfred McEwen from the University of Arizona in Tucson, said, “It's easy to be fooled without knowing the topography and measuring the layers in three dimensions”. He added, “With the stereo information, it is clear there's a repeating pattern to these layers”.


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