Three large Martian volcanoes -- the Tharsis Montes -- Arsis Mons, south of the Martian equator, Pavonis Mons on the equator, and Ascraeus Mons to the north -- may only be dormant, not extinct. And outgassing from them could stir the chilly vichyssoise of Mar's primordial soup into action!
NASA Photo:
A team of researchers led by Dr. Jacob Bleacher -- jointly of Arizona State University and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md--have discovered that, unlike planet Earth's moving crust, where volcanoes erupt as the crust move over stationary plumes of magma, then flicker out as the crust moves on past that "hot spot", Mar's crust is stationary; the magma must come to the Mountain. The researchers posit horizontal flows of lave are moving beneath Mar's stationary crust.
NASA Photo:
A team of researchers led by Dr. Jacob Bleacher -- jointly of Arizona State University and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md--have discovered that, unlike planet Earth's moving crust, where volcanoes erupt as the crust move over stationary plumes of magma, then flicker out as the crust moves on past that "hot spot", Mar's crust is stationary; the magma must come to the Mountain. The researchers posit horizontal flows of lave are moving beneath Mar's stationary crust.
"We finally have pictures with enough detail from the latest missions to Mars, including NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor, and the European Space Agency's Mars Express missions," Bleacher said.
Conjecture: should the three volcanoes cook off, enough greenhouse gas _could enter_ the Martian atmosphere to warm enough to liberate some h2o into becoming at least, surface slush.
(Thanks to Shaun Saunders for bringing this to my attention)
(Thanks to Shaun Saunders for bringing this to my attention)
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