"We found evidence for wind, waves, no shortage of sand—a proper, vacation-style beach," said study co-author and Pennsylvania State University geologist Benjamin Cardenas. Cardenas' team's findings align with previous research that points to the existence of a liquid Martian ocean billions of years ago.

Ground-penetrating radar data obtained by China's Zhurong rover has revealed buried beneath the Martian surface evidence of what look like sandy beaches from the shoreline of a large ocean that may have existed long ago on the northern plains of Mars.