Giant Lava Spirals Wreck Mars Ice Valley Theory

Martian Lava Spirals

Mars scientists are frantically regrouping after grad student Andrew Ryan with the help of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed what appeared to be huge spirals carved into the Lava flows in many of valleys on Mars. Scientists have had a long-running debate over whether water or volcanoes formed part of the red planet's landscape.

Andrew Ryan, A researcher at Arizona State University, may have been the first to spot this new form of lava flow — shaped like coils of rope — near the equator of Mars. They are new just to Mars however. Similar coiled lava structures have been observed on the Big Island of Hawaii and in submarine lava flows near the Galapagos Rift on the floor of the Pacific Ocean.

Ryan discovered the coiled lava structures in the Athabasca Valles nears Mars' equator - then continued his study by doing analysis on more than 100 high-resolution images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Ryan states that the spirals range in size from 16 to 100 feet wide and could not have been formed by ice-or water-related processes.

Thanks to long time listener Dan for the article

Ottawa Citizen article          Science Daily