Mars mountain may be result of wind, not water

A new analysis has suggested that a roughly 5.6-km-high Martian mound that scientists suspect preserves evidence of a massive lake might actually have formed as a result of the Red Planet's famously dusty atmosphere.

A new analysis has suggested that a roughly 5.6-km-high Martian mound that scientists suspect preserves evidence of a massive lake might actually have formed as a result of the Red Planet's famously dusty atmosphere.

If correct, the research could dilute expectations that the mound holds evidence of a large body of water, which would have important implications for understanding Mars' past habitability.

US researchers suggest that the mound, known as Mount Sharp, most likely emerged as strong winds carried dust and sand into the 154-km-wide crater in which the mound sits.

They reported that air likely rises out of the massive Gale Crater when the Martian surface warms during the day, then sweeps back down its steep walls at night. Though strong along the Gale Crater walls, these 'slope winds' would have died down at the crater's center where the fine dust in the air settled and accumulated to eventually form Mount Sharp, which is close in size to Alaska's Mt. McKinley.

This counters the theory that Mount Sharp formed from layers of lakebed silt - and could mean that the mound contains less evidence of a past, Earth-like Martian climate than most scientists currently expect.