<p>Previously, it was believed that no such activity has ever taken place on the Red Planet.<br />An area of rumpled land north-west of the giant volcano Olympus Mons contains many ridges and scarps that the new research claims are likely signs of plate tectonic activity.<br />This is evidence of plate shifting on Mars during the last 250,000 years, said study author An Yin of the University Of California, Los Angeles, the Daily Mail reports.<br /><br />Conventional wisdom holds that Mars - unlike Earth - is too small and has too cold an interior to host plate tectonic processes, according to a University of California statement.<br />But Yin claims to have evidence that plate tectonics carved out many of the landforms on Mars - and that they are still shaping the planet today.<br /><br />If true, this would mean Mars is far more likely to host extra-terrestrial life than previously thought, according to space.com, because plate tectonics could help replenish nutrients, such as carbon, needed to sustain life.<br /><br />Said Yin, who presented his findings at last month's meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco: "People don't want there to be plate tectonics on Mars. But I think there's good evidence for it."<br /><br />His research focused on a series of photographs of the region to the north-west of Olympus Mons taken by two NASA spacecraft -- Mars Odyssey and Mars .</p>
<p>Previously, it was believed that no such activity has ever taken place on the Red Planet.<br />An area of rumpled land north-west of the giant volcano Olympus Mons contains many ridges and scarps that the new research claims are likely signs of plate tectonic activity.<br />This is evidence of plate shifting on Mars during the last 250,000 years, said study author An Yin of the University Of California, Los Angeles, the Daily Mail reports.<br /><br />Conventional wisdom holds that Mars - unlike Earth - is too small and has too cold an interior to host plate tectonic processes, according to a University of California statement.<br />But Yin claims to have evidence that plate tectonics carved out many of the landforms on Mars - and that they are still shaping the planet today.<br /><br />If true, this would mean Mars is far more likely to host extra-terrestrial life than previously thought, according to space.com, because plate tectonics could help replenish nutrients, such as carbon, needed to sustain life.<br /><br />Said Yin, who presented his findings at last month's meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco: "People don't want there to be plate tectonics on Mars. But I think there's good evidence for it."<br /><br />His research focused on a series of photographs of the region to the north-west of Olympus Mons taken by two NASA spacecraft -- Mars Odyssey and Mars .</p>