Home Plate Is...

[paulanderson]

...a mini-volcano!<br /><br />LPSC update in <i>Science</i> magazine:<br /><br />http://tinyurl.com/z4qx4<br /><br />http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/311/5769/1858b<br /><br />More text from Alex Blackwell (US.com forum):<br /><br /><i>"Martian ring of fire. Most Mars rover scientists have concluded that the cryptic 'Home Plate' that the Spirit rover spent 3 months reaching is the remains of a little ash-spewing volcano. The 90-meter-wide, 2-meter-high platform of layered ash has a distinctive chemical composition linking it to nearby lavas on the floor of Gusev impact crater and to rocks on the adjacent Columbia Hills, says team member Harry McSween of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He thinks volcanism driven from beneath Gusev blanketed any lake sediments mission planners expected to find on the floor of Gusev."</i><br /><br />Magazine subscription or article purchase necessary to read full article, but there should be other updates soon?<br />

 

[qso1]

Excellent. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[silylene old]

very interesting.<br /><br />I remember this origin was predicted extremely early on by some people who called it a "cinder cone", and laughed at by others. We had a nice little debate over the possibility.<br /><br />What would have truly shocked me was if Home Plate was the remnant of a geyser (some had supported this rather unlikely hope).<br /><br />Anyways, what is Pitcher's Mound? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[bonzelite]

neat-o. <br /><br />it'd be cool if it erupted again.

 

[jatslo]

Oh, bummer; I was betting on hydro-thermal.

 

[bonzelite]

hydro may be somewhere else. never know. i'd like MRO data on Olympus Mons, for example. it's 16 miles high of what...

 

[jatslo]

16-miles higher than the mean elevation, I think. Anything below the mean elevation would, in my opinion, be oceanic. Little difficult to confirm global oceans when the volcanoes are covering up the evidence, but MRO should be able to sort things out to some degree of accuracy. The issue seems like a minority versus majority ruling still, so I still have hope of "Home Plate" hydrothermal activity. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

[bonzelite]

actually, i'd like to know MRO findings on the entire Tharsis plateau. it's thought to be a huge volcanic uprise. so what if it's sitting atop a huge ice formation?

 

[jatslo]

An uprise would crack the crust, leaving fissures.<br /><br />Where is it on the google map: http://www.google.com/mars/#lat=12.726084&lon=-9.667968

 

[jatslo]

According to google Mars the mean depth, or absolute zero is between 3 and -3, whereas the shallowest is -9, and the highest is 21; kilometers, that is. So your target is probably next to one of those rather large volcanoes, right?

 

[JonClarke]

I can't say I am convinced. I agree that the successions volcaniclastic, but if it were the fill of a volcanic vebnt 9or hydrothermal vent for that matter) I would expect a long more really coarse material - locks the size of cars, for istance. We don't see that. So I am still tending towards an impact crater fortunitously filled by volcaniclastic material and subsequently undegone relief inversion.<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[mlorrey]

Nah, its obviously home to the lost civilization of ten foot tall green ants of Mars, y'know, the ones John Carter spoke of... just one big anthill.

 

[JonClarke]

Sure it's not where Weinbaum's (c.f. Martian Odyssey) barrel-creatures live?<br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>