volcanism tagged posts

Researchers expect the volcanoes in Mars’ Sisyphi Planum region to look similar to subglacial volcanoes on earth, such as Herðubreið in Iceland. Credit: Purdue University photo/Sheridan Ackiss

The climate throughout Mars’ early history has long been debated – was the Red Planet warm and wet, or cold and icy? New research published in Icarus provides evidence for the latter. Mars is littered with valley networks, deltas and lake deposits, meaning it must have had freely flowing water at some point, probably around 4 billion years ago. But climate models of the planet’s deep past haven’t been able to produce warm enough conditions to allow liquid water on the surface.

“There are people trying to model Mars’ ancient climate using the same kind of models we use here on Earth, and they’re hav...

Image1: A map of Mars that includes the unually high elevation region LSU researchers are studying called Thaumasia Planum.Photo Credit: Wikimedia 2. LSU Mars researchers study the Kilauea Iki lava lake on Hawaii, which offers a similar geological environment to Mars.Photo Credit: Don Hood, LSU

Researcher Don Hood from LSU and colleagues from collaborating universities studied an unusual region on Mars – an area with high elevation called Thaumasia Planum. They analyzed the geography and mineralogy of this area they termed Greater Thaumasia, which is about the size of North America. They also studied the chemistry of this area based on Gamma Ray Spectrometer data collected by Mars Odyssey Orbiter, launched in 2001...