On earth there is up to today 20 known super volcanoes. An Australian research team recently thought an imminent outbreak of one or more of these giant fire-breathers was very likely. Now NASA has proven in a new study that super volcanoes on Mars were responsible for thousands of eruptions.
Huge amounts of molten rock …
The Martian giant volcanoes are said to have been active for the last time four billion years ago. In the Arabia Terra region in particular, the researchers found massive amounts of molten rock. Lava in the order of magnitude that would correspond to around 400 million fully filled Olympic swimming pools reached the surface of the red planet.
The initially created rock layer then collapsed over the basin, the caldera of the respective volcanoes. Of these there are seven very massive representatives in Arabia Terra. Until now, researchers have misinterpreted them as asteroid craters. It was only in 2013 that researchers came up with a new hypothesis in a study. According to this, the crater-like rock basins could be volcanic cauldrons.
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… suggest thousands of super eruptions
The now before This study confirms this assumption. When investigating the soil conditions in the Arabia Terra region, the researchers discovered volcanic ash. Their mineral composition, which they examined using spectrometry from the NASA orbiter “Mars Reconnaissance”, suggests super eruptions. The sheer number of calderas in Arabia Terra combined with the immense thickness of the ash layer leads the study authors to the conclusion that there must have been thousands of supervolcanic eruptions in the region. According to the researchers, these must have taken place over a period of 500 million years.
In view of the fact that even a single supervolcano eruption can have drastic climatic consequences, this could clarify the cause of thousands of eruptions on Mars possibly contribute to the question of whether there ever was life on Mars and, if so, why it ended.
On earth, a single supervolcanic eruption was believed to be enough about 74,000 years ago to get around that shrink the existing human population to 3,000 to 10,000 individuals. This is attributed to the fact that the extremely violent eruption could have destroyed the vegetation and thus the food sources on which the people were dependent. Imagine the impact of thousands of such eruptions.
What now confronts the researchers with a new riddle is the question of how the small planet Mars managed to melt so much rock that it could hold for thousands Super eruptions was enough. After all, Mars is only a quarter of the earth’s surface. The equatorial diameter of around 7,000 kilometers is also only a little more than half the size of that of the earth. Solving this new riddle is now to be the subject of further studies. At least if the research team has its way.