Mars Volcanos may not be extinct

[brellis]

space.com article<br /><br /><font color="yellow">New research on Hawaiian volcanoes, combined with satellite imagery of Mars, suggests that three Martian volcanoes may only be dormant—not extinct. Instead of Mars' crust moving over stationary magma "hot spots," as occurs on Earth, researchers think the plumes travel.<br /><br />"On Earth, the Hawaiian islands were built from volcanoes that erupted as the Earth's crust slid over a hot spot—a plume of rising magma," said Jacob Bleacher, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Our research raises the possibility that the opposite happens on Mars; a plume might move beneath stationary crust."<br /><br />Bleacher and his colleagues' findings are detailed in a recent issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research, Planets.<br /><br />Armed with new images from NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor orbiters, as well as the ESA's Mars Express, the team saw that the three volcanoes were similar in formation. However, each had recently erupted in distinct ways that allowed the scientists to determine the ages of the eruptions.<br /><br />During the volcanic activity, lava oozed from cracks in the volcanoes' sides and formed "lava aprons;" the smoother the apron, scientists determined, the older the eruption.<br /><br />Lava aprons on the northern-most volcano, Ascraeus Mons, are the youngest, Bleacher said, while the southern-most volcano, Arsia Mons, has the oldest. Like the Hawaiian volcanoes, the findings show that the volcanoes were fed by a common source of magma—but one that was on the move.<br /><br />There's an alternative explanation for the chain of activity. Scientists postulate that the plume of magma could have spread out once it impacted the crust from below, like smoke hitting a ceiling.<br /><br />"Our evidence doesn't favor either scenario," Bleacher said, "but</font> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#ff0000"><em><strong>I'm a recovering optimist - things could be better.</strong></em></font> </p> </div>

 

[yevaud]

So rather than the plate traveling across the hot-spot, the hot spot moves, while the crust stays motionless. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[docm]

So Mars is one supervolcano eruption away from terraforming <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[exoscientist]

This news release discusses their theory in more detail with images:<br /><br />Hawaii Reveals Steamy Martian Underground<br />10.17.07<br />Is Mars dead, or is it only sleeping?<br />http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2007/mars_volcanoes.html<br /><br /> The most obvious explanation for these features on Mars analogous to the Hawaiian chain volcanoes is that they are also due to plate tectonics.<br /> The Space.com article does not mention this possibility but the NASA news release says why this was not considered to be the answer:<br /><br /> From the news release:<br /><br />"The new observations show that the rift apron on the northernmost volcano, Ascraeus Mons, has the most tubes, many of which are not buried by lava channels. Since tube flows are the first to form over a hot spot, this indicates that Ascraeus was likely active more recently. The flow on the southernmost volcano, Arsia Mons, has the least tubes, indicating that its rift aprons are older. Also, the team saw more channel flows partially burying tube flows at Arsia. These trends across the volcanic chain indicate that the rift aprons might have shared a common source like the Hawaiian volcanoes, and that apron eruptions started at Arsia, then moved northward, burying the earlier tube flows at Arsia with channel flows.<br />"Since there is no evidence for widespread crustal plate movement on Mars, one explanation is that the magma plume could have moved beneath the Tharsis Montes volcanoes, according to the team. This is opposite to the situation at Hawaii, where volcanoes move over a plume that is either stationary or moving much more slowly. Another scenario that could explain the features is a stationary plume that spreads out as it nears the surface, like smoke hitting a ceiling. The plume could have remained under Arsia and spread northward toward Ascraeus. "Our evidence doesn't favor eit <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[h2ouniverse]

Thanks exo for these links.<br />What is your prognosis for the temperature 2m deep?<br />(where Exomars will dig)

 

[fatal291]

glad we found this out before manned missions, i mean there are only dozens of crafts on the planet well before now..

 

[3488]

Thank you both very much Brad & Bob.<br /><br />I am making an all too infrequent & brief visit to SDC (ongoing computer problems, so using the work <br />one during lunch break).<br /><br />Bob I have downloaded & printed your links. This is fascinating stuff.<br /><br />The general idea intitially, was that the Martian crust was too think to allow for magma<br />to rise to the surface at the present time.<br /><br />However, this would explain the Tharsis Rise & the three gigantic shields that sit on top<br />of it (Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons & Ascraeus Mons). I had always thouth, that those three WERE <br />physically related to one another. A moving magmatic hot spot would explain that well.<br /><br />IMO Olympus Mons grew atop its own hot spot & as such is not physically reated to the other <br />giant Tharsis shields.<br /><br />I REALLY would like to see a Mars Volcano Lander be sent, probably similar to Mars Pathfinder,<br />but instead of a Sojourner type rover, a very sensitive<br />Seismometer / tiltmeter instead.<br /><br />Otherwise the lander can be a duplicate of the hugely successful Mars Pathfinder <br />(same cameras, etc).<br /><br />Perhaps such a craft could detect deep underground magma movements & any venting <br />if it is happening. Perhaps suggestions for the potential landing site??<br /><br />Whilst current Mars exploration is focused on Following the Water (MERs, Phoenix, MSL), I think<br />this would make a good case of understanding the internal / volcanic aerological history /<br />makeup of Mars, to compliment the Water story.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[synical]

From my recollection, the largest volcano in our solar system is on Mars (Olympus Mons) and it's a 'shield' volcano, meaning that it has shallow sides but and enormous reservoir of magma and molten rock. <br /><br />When a shield goes up on Earth, plenty of lava runs (very fast) down the sides of the 'cano, while only a small amount of hot dust and small rocks (the big black plumes of smoke) is ejected from the mouth of the volcano.<br /><br />But considering the size of this mother, a HUGE amount of molten rock will spill out and a small (relative to the volcano anyway) amount of smoke will come out the top.<br /><br />But (again...) considering the size, the amount of smoke will be astronomical.<br /><br />So Mars could very well pollute it's own environment enough for humans to live there!

 

[3488]

Hi synical,<br /><br />Just making a quick appearance owing to technical problems at my end,<br /><br />IMO you are correct on that score. All four of the Tharsis volcanoes would be capable of generating<br />huge amounts of ash & smoke. <br /><br />It is highly likely that these four played a major role, in maintaining the Martian atmosphere, after the magnetosphere collapsed<br />& the solar wind started eroding the original Martian atmosphere.<br /><br />If Olympus Mons is still active & is just dormant, than really the idea of my Mars Volcano Lander<br />would be advisable. If we are to send humans, IMO we need to know for sure before hand, that the<br />volcanoes are either dormant or extinct.<br /><br />MGS quite a while back, imaged a swathe across the summit caldera of Olympus Mons with the MOC.<br /><br />There were quite a large number of small impact craters, within the caldera, but they were not<br />of uniform density. While there were <br />obvious lava flows or lava pooling events, the general scene suggested to me, that nothing in the summit <br />caldera has happend for a very long time. Eruptions from any small cones lower down <br />on the slopes cannot be ruled out.<br /><br />Perhaps the entire mountain of Olympus Mons needs to be imaged by MRO HiRISE, to search for said cones, <br />if they exist & if so, are they youthful, or ancient?<br /><br />Really this needs to be done for all of the Tharsis & Elysium volcanoes, but I think the time<br />required would be prohibitive.<br /><br />This is a most fascinating area of study, in our exploration of Mars.<br /><br />A small area in the very centre of the summit caldera of Olympus Mons.<br /><br />South western area of summit caldera & wall of <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'><font color="#800000">space.com article New research on Hawaiian volcanoes, combined with satellite imagery of Mars, suggests that three Martian volcanoes may only be dormant&acirc;&euro;&rdquo;not extinct. Instead of Mars' crust moving over stationary magma "hot spots," as occurs on Earth, researchers think the plumes travel. "On Earth, the Hawaiian islands were built from volcanoes that erupted as the Earth's crust slid over a hot spot&acirc;&euro;&rdquo;a plume of rising magma," said Jacob Bleacher, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Our research raises the possibility that the opposite happens on Mars; a plume might move beneath stationary crust." Bleacher and his colleagues' findings are detailed in a recent issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research, Planets. Armed with new images from NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor orbiters, as well as the ESA's Mars Express, the team saw that the three volcanoes were similar in formation. However, each had recently erupted in distinct ways that allowed the scientists to determine the ages of the eruptions. During the volcanic activity, lava oozed from cracks in the volcanoes' sides and formed "lava aprons;" the smoother the apron, scientists determined, the older the eruption. Lava aprons on the northern-most volcano, Ascraeus Mons, are the youngest, Bleacher said, while the southern-most volcano, Arsia Mons, has the oldest. Like the Hawaiian volcanoes, the findings show that the volcanoes were fed by a common source of magma&acirc;&euro;&rdquo;but one that was on the move. There's an alternative explanation for the chain of activity. Scientists postulate that the plume of magma could have spread out once it impacted the crust from below, like smoke hitting a ceiling. "Our evidence doesn't favor either scenario," Bleacher said, "but <br />Posted by brellis</font></DIV></p><p><font size="2" color="#003300"><strong>Hi Brad, I had to requote your post in a dark colour as I cannot read the original yellow typeface, although on UpLink yellow did work well on grey, but not on Pluck's white background.</strong></font></p><p><strong><font size="2">Ab<font color="#800000">solutely fascinating update here. Five major episodes of Martian volcanic activity?</font></font></strong></p><p><font size="2" color="#000080"><strong>http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMCPLM5NDF_0.html</strong></font></p><p><img id="ipb-attach-img-8992-0-41827600-1206915265" style="cursorointer" class="ipb" src="http://thespaceport.us/forum/uploads/monthly_03_2008/post-774-1206915142_thumb.jpg" alt="Attached Image" title="Click to view full image" width="500" height="320" /> </p><div id="ipb-attach-cb-8992-0-41827600-1206915265" style="font-size:9px;margin:0px;text-align:center">2604 x 1666 (953.02K)</div><p><font size="2" color="#003300"><strong>3.5 GYA, 1.5 GYA, 400 MYA, 200 MYA & 100 MYA.</strong></font><br /><br /><font size="2" color="#800000"><strong>Andrew Brown.</strong></font></p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[Swampcat]

<p>Andrew, the link to the larger image you posted is only accessible by&nbsp;SpacePort members. I had to log in to see it.</p><p>BTW, would you know if&nbsp;the curve on that chart matches in any way the history of volcanism on Earth? Also,&nbsp;is this chart to be interpreted as a sign that the frequency of major volcanic episodes is increasing?</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="3" color="#ff9900"><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>------------------------------------------------------------------- </em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."</em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong>Thomas Jefferson</strong></font></p></font> </div>

 

[3488]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'><font color="#ff0000">Andrew, the link to the larger image you posted is only accessible by&nbsp;SpacePort members. I had to log in to see it.BTW, would you know if&nbsp;the curve on that chart matches in any way the history of volcanism on Earth? Also,&nbsp;is this chart to be interpreted as a sign that the frequency of major volcanic episodes is increasing? <br />Posted by Swampcat</font></DIV></p><p><font size="2" color="#333300"><strong>Hi Swampcat,</strong></font></p><p><font size="2" color="#333300"><strong>Thanks for the heads up regarding the images. Because of what I post at SpacePort is the same more or less as I post here at SDC, I discovered it was possible with the forum software here at SDC&nbsp;to hot link to the images directly. What I did not realise was that a viewer had to be logged into SpacePort&nbsp;also to view them from SDC.</strong></font></p><p><font size="2" color="#333300"><strong>OK I will stop doing that. </strong></font></p><p><font size="2" color="#333300"><strong>To be able to put large high resolution images on ImageShack, whilst a very good method, can be very timely & at times it does not work, not often, but it does happen occassionally.</strong></font></p><p><font size="2" color="#333300"><strong>I was just trying, unsuccessfully, to be clever.</strong></font></p><p><font size="2" color="#333300"><strong>Regarding the volcanic episodes on Mars, yes I can see that, the events are clustering closer together, obviously&nbsp;2 Gyrs separated the first two, but&nbsp;the last three,&nbsp;have occured within 800 million years.</strong></font></p><p><font size="2" color="#333300"><strong>I will have to compare Earth with Mars. As you say, the activity curves would be fascinating to compare.</strong></font></p><p><font size="2" color="#333300"><strong>I suspect off the top of my head, that with Earth, it is more likely a general declining curve, but with spikes, such as the Permian episode (Siberian Lava Traps)&nbsp;& the Deccan Lava Traps in India on the K/T boundary, thought to be jointly responsible along side the comet impact, seeing off the Dinosaurs.</strong></font></p><p><font size="2" color="#333300"><strong>These two events would stick out prominently as spikes, but I suspent the overall background activity curve on Earth&nbsp;to be a slow but steady decline.</strong></font></p><p><font size="2" color="#333300"><strong>I will look.</strong></font></p><p><font size="2" color="#333300"><strong>The activity patterns on Mars, though does seem very strange. We know that Martian volcanism is hot spot driven with magma rising through the mantle, burning a hole in the crust above. </strong></font></p><p><strong><font size="2" color="#333300">What does not make sense, is the more 'recent' clustering. In theory it should be in decline, but the 'resurgence' over the last 800 million years does seem odd.&nbsp;</font></strong></p><p><strong><font size="2" color="#333300">I wonder if heat builds up in the mantle&nbsp;then a period of volcanic activity sheds it?</font></strong></p><p><strong><font size="2" color="#333300">Venus is thought to undergo widespread volcanic flooding every so often, the most recent approx 500 million years ago.</font></strong></p><p><strong><font size="2" color="#333300">Maybe something on a smaller scale happens on Mars?</font></strong></p><p><font size="2" color="#333300"><strong>Andrew Brown.</strong></font></p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[Swampcat]

<p><font color="#993366">"<strong><font size="2">What does not make sense, is the more 'recent' clustering. In theory it should be in decline, but the 'resurgence' over the last 800 million years does seem odd." --3488</font></strong></font></p><p><font size="2" color="#000000">Thanks for the quick reponse, Andrew. Isn't it well past your bedtime? It is for me and I'm at least 5 hours behind you <img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-smile.gif" border="0" alt="Smile" title="Smile" />.</font></p><p><font size="2">Yeah,&nbsp;the&nbsp;increased frequency of volcanic&nbsp;episodes doesn't square with&nbsp;what I understood to be the situation with Mars. Interesting stuff.</font></p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="3" color="#ff9900"><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>------------------------------------------------------------------- </em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."</em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong>Thomas Jefferson</strong></font></p></font> </div>