Mars Odyssey: mud volcanos on Mars?

[docm]

Link....

Is life bubbling up in Mars mud?

IS LIFE bubbling onto the Martian surface in muddy squirts? The discovery of what could be mud volcanoes on the planet suggest it is possible, providing a new focus in the hunt for alien microbes.

Three plumes have recently been identified as sources of methane in Mars's atmosphere (New Scientist, 24 January, p 19). This has led to suggestions that the gas could have been produced by microbes living a few kilometres beneath the surface, where it could be warm enough for liquid water to persist.

This would be difficult to confirm as drilling that deep for samples on another planet is beyond current technology. Now it seems that nature may have done the hard work for us, bringing mud from deep within the planet to the surface via mud volcanoes.

Using images from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, Dorothy Oehler and Carlton Allen of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, identified dozens of mounds at a site in the northern plains of Mars that bear a striking resemblance to mud volcanoes on Earth. These form a distinctive large hill of sediment with a central crater (see photo).

Further evidence comes from infrared images of the Martian mounds, which show that they cool down more quickly at night than rock should, suggesting they are made of a fine-grained sediment such as mud.

Together with David Baker of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, Allen and Oehler also took a fresh look at some possible mud volcanoes identified previously by other researchers, about 1000 kilometres further north. Using light spectra of the mounds recorded by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, they found hints of iron oxides, which form in the presence of liquid water. Both studies will be presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas, this month.

Jack Farmer of Arizona State University in Tempe agrees that the mounds could be mud volcanoes, but cautions that other processes, like the retreat of glaciers, can leave behind similar heaps of sediment. Nonetheless, studying the clay from mud volcanoes would be of great interest, he says. "Clays have the ability to sequester organic molecules, like ammonia and proteins," he says. "They might retain a memory of any organisms that were there."

 

[3488]

Thank you very, very much docm for bringing this here.

I am not surprised at this at all.

Clearly hydrated regolith does exist as evidenced by the Phoenix Mars Lander (the rock hard icy regolith Phoenix was able to uncover & sample).

It would not take a lot of imagination to realise that perhaps a warm spot under that regolith would cause localised melting, settling & indeed a series of water rich regolith (mud) eruptions to occur.

The image you posted certainly does look like a mud volcano as opposed to a Pingo.

The next step would be to map them & to see whether or not they are isolated or form in clusters or lines.

I can see one future avenue of research to be carried out by the MRO HiRISE also I think we can safely assume that one of these will be a landing site for a future lander. Perhaps a sample return from one of these?

Once again, that you so much docm for this. It is incredibly fascinating.

Andrew Brown.

 

[dragon04]

Circumstantial or not, the evidence is piling up as we're able to peel away the layers of the Onion. I think the fact that we're uncovering all these bits with good, hard, solid science lends a lot of credence to any theory that postulates some form of extant life on Mars.

This is great stuff.

 

[JonClarke]

I have corresponded with the authors over this and thinik they have a good point. They had several abstracts at last weeks's LPSC However other explanations, such as mound springs (I also had an abstract at5 the LPSC about this), may be possible for some of the features they call mud volcanoes.

From an exploration targetting point of view both are interesting, as they are point features where sediments and fluids from the martian interior are deposited at the surface. With mud volcanoes the deposition is mostly physical but with mound springs it is mainly chemical. Either way they would be potentially very interesting but high risk targets for astrobiology exploration.

IMHO!

Jon

 

[bobw]

...Jack Farmer of Arizona State University in Tempe agrees that the mounds could be mud volcanoes, but cautions that other processes, like the retreat of glaciers, can leave behind similar heaps of sediment. ...

I was really surprised to read that. They must not be very common. A google search for circular moraine turned up a lot of articles, especially about Jaeren Norway, but the only pictures I could find were unconvincing/unintelligible.

I have corresponded with the authors over this and thinik they have a good point. They had several abstracts at last weeks's LPSC However other explanations, such as mound springs (I also had an abstract at5 the LPSC about this), may be possible for some of the features they call mud volcanoes.

Heck yes! Lots of pictures about mound springs (never heard of them either). Seems pretty odd that Farmer would mention glaciation instead of mound springs as an explanation, he must do glaciers eh?

...Either way they would be potentially very interesting but high risk targets for astrobiology exploration. ...

Do you mean risky as in "lander/rover" might fall in or risky as in unlikely to find signs of life? If the latter, where do you think would be a better place to look?

 

[crazyeddie]

Is life bubbling up in Mars mud?

IS LIFE bubbling onto the Martian surface in muddy squirts? The discovery of what could be mud volcanoes on the planet suggest it is possible, providing a new focus in the hunt for alien microbes.

Three plumes have recently been identified as sources of methane in Mars's atmosphere (New Scientist, 24 January, p 19). This has led to suggestions that the gas could have been produced by microbes living a few kilometres beneath the surface, where it could be warm enough for liquid water to persist.

Wow! This planet just gets more fascinating, year by year. I'm old enough to remember how everyone wrote it off after the Mariner 4 photos had scientists of the day characterizing it as "dead and barren as the moon". What a captivating world!

 

[JonClarke]

...Jack Farmer of Arizona State University in Tempe agrees that the mounds could be mud volcanoes, but cautions that other processes, like the retreat of glaciers, can leave behind similar heaps of sediment. ...

I was really surprised to read that. They must not be very common. A google search for circular moraine turned up a lot of articles, especially about Jaeren Norway, but the only pictures I could find were unconvincing/unintelligible.

Well, mud volcanoes are common in some parts of the world. I am not sure what glacial features look them, unless Farmer meant pingos.

I have corresponded with the authors over this and think they have a good point. They had several abstracts at last weeks's LPSC However other explanations, such as mound springs (I also had an abstract at5 the LPSC about this), may be possible for some of the features they call mud volcanoes.

Heck yes! Lots of pictures about mound springs (never heard of them either). Seems pretty odd that Farmer would mention glaciation instead of mound springs as an explanation, he must do glaciers eh?

We all then to look at things ground the spectacles of our backgrounds. I don't if Farmer has ever seen a mound spring, maybe never even heard of them. Whereas I am quite familiar with them, but have never seen a mud volcano or pingo!

...Either way they would be potentially very interesting but high risk targets for astrobiology exploration. ...

Do you mean risky as in "lander/rover" might fall in or risky as in unlikely to find signs of life? If the latter, where do you think would be a better place to look?

I meant in that you could target what you think is a nmound spring or mud volcano but could turn out to be something quite different but superfically similar and quite uninteresting from a hydrologivcal or astrobiological perspective like a rootless cone.

Bit like Spirit being sent to what was hoped was a lake bed but turned out to be a lava plain.

cheers

Jon

 

[3488]

That's a good point Jon.

I wonder if it would be possible for MRO & Mars Odyssey to remote sense these features. Perhaps they may be under a layer of dust that would corrupt the readings???????? Perhaps MARSIS or SHARAD could help????

MER A Spirit is a great example of how something that appears to be a hydrological feature turns out to be very different. Mind you with Spirit, we have got great data concerning volcanic processes as well as interactions with water in the Columbia Hills.

IMO the feature docm linked to, does LOOK like a mud volcano, but as you say, could be a rootless cone.

Andrew Brown.

 

[JonClarke]

That's a good point Jon.

I wonder if it would be possible for MRO & Mars Odyssey to remote sense these features. Perhaps they may be under a layer of dust that would corrupt the readings???????? Perhaps MARSIS or SHARAD could help????

MER A Spirit is a great example of how something that appears to be a hydrological feature turns out to be very different. Mind you with Spirit, we have got great data concerning volcanic processes as well as interactions with water in the Columbia Hills.

IMO the feature docm linked to, does LOOK like a mud volcano, but as you say, could be a rootless cone.

Hi Andrew

A spring, with its precipitates, should be compositionally very distinct from the surrounding materials, whereas a mud volcano might me more similar. As you say, the spectral signature could be obscured by dust.

What we need is a better way of distinguishing between them and related features. Something to work on!