An international team of researchers , led by Don Hood from Louisiana State University , has look at the Greater Thaumasia region on Mars and discover conclusive evidence that a long mountain ridge in this portion of the Red Planet was form by volcanic activity , connected to the evolution of Mars ’s mantle .
Their enquiry has been release in theJournal of Geophysical Research : Planets .
“ The chemical change we see strike northwestward through the region is ordered with the mantelpiece germinate on Mars . Our inquiry hold up that this whole area was work up as a volcanic construct , ” said Hood in astatement .
The team expect at the neighborhood in a numeral of different ways , analyze the mineralogy , geology , and interpersonal chemistry of Greater Thaumasia . By using data point from the Mars Odyssey orbiter , the squad discovered that the composition of tilt transfer throughout the territory .
The heap ridge is racy in silica and water and poor in K . Moving from this neighborhood , in the south - east , through the highland , the amount of water supply and silica decreases and the potassium increases .
At the magnetic north - west corner of the system , there are several shield volcano , standardized to the volcanos we recover in Hawaii . They exhaust lava slowly and impact only their immediate area .
Volcanic blast are the most likely explanation for what is seen in the region , although flow water was considered a potential case for the chemical change . “ We expect for evidence of aqueous change through other geochemical means and did n’t find it , ” said Hood .
There ’s also another crucial chemical determination . There is sulfur present in the region , and it is very likely to have been deposited as a volcanic ash .
“ Whether there was volatile volcanism on Mars and how much of it there was is an important query in terms of regain out what the past clime was like , ” Hood added .
volatile volcano , like Mount Vesuvius or Mount Saint Helen , break out in catastrophic way , station a turgid amount of material into the atmosphere . These molecule can significantly affect aplanet ’s climateso confirming this finding could recount us a lot more about the history of Mars .
