Posted on 03/07/2017 8:33:44 AM PST by MtnClimber
Our closest planetary neighbor shares a surprising feature with Earth: volcanoes. A new study, published February 1st in the journal Science Advances, revealed interesting new details about the volcanic history of Mars. Thomas Lapen, first author of the paper and Professor of Geology at the University of Houston, told Astronomy that their analysis of Martian meteorites showed that volcanic activity on Mars has been ongoing since at least 2.4 to 0.15 billion years ago—and likely continues today.
Given that the meteorites Lapen and his group studied came from a single ejection site on Mars, they reveal over 2 billion years of stacked lava flows, Lapen said. The discovery could help scientists decipher more about how often volcanoes erupted on Mars, as well as time periods when they were most active.
Lapen explained that the type of volcanic activity that occurs on Mars is called basaltic volcanism, which is similar to the type of volcanism seen, for example, in volcanoes in Hawaii. These types of volcanoes produce fluid lava and are rarely explosive.
But Mars isn’t the only extraterrestrial body with volcanoes. Volcanoes—in various forms—are also found on other planets, moons, and even asteroids. Take, for instance, Jupiter’s moon Io, which has active volcanoes that spew gas and melted rock, or Venus, which is covered with over 1,000 volcanoes, according to NASA. It’s not yet determined whether these venusian volcanoes are active or not.
(Excerpt) Read more at astronomy.com ...
Amazing how common volcanoes are on other planets lacking plate tectonics.
Someone needs to inform Astronomy magazine that Venus is closer to Earth than Mars.
They are not finding rhyolitic lava which is likely impossible without the “mixing” provided by tectonics. My guess anyhow.
What about the volcanoes on Jupiter and Saturn?
William Herschel reported observing eruptions on the Moon at least three times in the 1780s. And during the Apollo missions astronauts saw patches of material that could have been volcanic in origin and fairly recently so.
Russians fault!
Can’t be. The science is settled. Clearly, human activity is causing the heat rise from those holes in the ground, everywhere in the universe.
1. As our solar system coalesced from gaseous form into condensed matter due to gravity, the pressure from those over-heated molecules born our planets in a semi-solid state. Learned that in 3rd grade;
2. Because the universe is absolute cold, it caused said molecules to further solidify on the outside and build crusts. More grade school
3. So...those cooling objects still have internal heat/pressure from gravity pulling them together, and experience eruptions from that pressure. I'm so surprised!
4. Did these scientists just discover internal cores with associated heat and pressure of these space objects?
Can't wait till they discover the Sun has a bigger influence on Earthly climate than human expulsion of CO2 gases. What a geo-political planetary finding that will be!
1. John's eruption from the outer limits;
2. Jane's eruption from the inner limits;
3. Harold's eruption from everywhere being a horndog;
4. George Takei's eruption because he's a perve from planet Mars.
Here's my white board equation: E=OGsquared. Education=OverthoughtGrant times squared.
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From whence did they draw the assumption that the meteorites in question originated on Mars? Sounds more like an educated guess than scientific evidence. And how did they determine the age?
Excellent questions.
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