Martian Volcanoes Bigger, Faster Growing than Expected

Written by Alice Scarsi on October 4, 2017. Posted in Current News

Scottish scientists have used meteorites fallen to Earth to recreate the evolution of a volcano on Mars, in a first-ever attempt made in history. The space rocks analysed hid more than 90 million years of information on the Red Planet’s volcanoes.

They allowed scientists to identify from which volcano they came from, how fast it grew and how long it was active. Mars has the largest volcanoes in the solar system. Olympus Mons is more than 370 miles wide and over 13 miles high, more than twice the height of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth.

Not only Martian volcanoes are bigger than those on our planet – they are also more powerful. As the crust on the Red Planet do not move, they can erupt in the same place for extraordinary lengths of time. They can also grow in size, as new layers of lava settle and cool on their sides with each eruption. The six meteorites studied are known as ‘nakhlites’.

This meteorite from Mars is a piece of a volcano that erupted on Mars 1300 million years ago

They were shatters of Martian terrain blasted from the surface of the planet by an asteroid 11 million years ago. Three landed in Antarctica, one in the USA, one in northwestern Africa, and one in Egypt. They are considered the second-most common type of meteorites coming from Mars.

Lead author Dr Benjamin Cohen, of Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, East Kilbride, said: “We know from previous studies that the nakhlite meteorites are volcanic rocks, and the development of age-dating techniques in recent years made the nakhlites perfect candidates to help us learn more about volcanoes on Mars.” Because of the lack of samples, how volcanoes on Mars evolved has always been a mystery.

Dr Cohen added: “We found that the nakhlites formed from at least four eruptions over the course of 90 million years.”

The Red Planet is a rocky desert with volcanoes that are millions year old

The research found out that the Martian volcano grew 1,000 times slower than similar volcanoes on Earth. On the other hand, Mars was far more volcanically active earlier in its history than previously thought. Nakhlites are considered the second-most common type of meteorites coming from Mars. Scientists used all the data gathered from the meteorites to narrow down the possibilities of exactly which volcano they came from.

Dr Cohen said: “Previous studies had suggested several different candidate locations for the nakhlite source crater.

“However, only one of these locations identified so far matches our results for the age of the eruptions and the timing of impact ejection into space.”

Martian Volcanoes Bigger, Faster Growing than Expected

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