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The big difference between Mars and Earth is that Earth is a volcanically active planet, the Hawaiian eruption being an example. And Mars has been a cold, geologically dead place for the past 3 billion years, which is the view of many scientists. However, a paper published today in the journal Nature Astronomy challenges this, saying that Mars may be geologically active.
NASA’s InSight landed on Elysium Planitia near the equator of Mars in 2018. The new discovery is the result of a survey of the lowlands of the Elysium Planitia using orbital photography, surface data and computer models.
Researchers at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona analyzed Marsquakes detected by InSight and concluded that they were caused by a series of subsurface fissures known as the Cerberus Fossae that line the surface of Mars. Stretching nearly 1,300 kilometers, this creates mantle thermal columns, blobs of lava that reach the bottom of the crust, causing earthquakes, faulting and volcanic eruptions.
Computer models of the Elysian Plain show that the Elysian Plain is not a geologically dead state, and experienced a large-scale volcanic eruption more than 200 million years ago. What’s more, “the team previously discovered the largest known planet on Mars in the Erythium Planum,” study co-author and planetary scientist Jeff Andrews Hanna said in a statement. Evidence of a young eruption. It caused a small ash eruption 53,000 years ago that seems like yesterday in geological time span.”
If Mars is indeed geologically active, the likelihood that it is biologically active increases. What little water remains on the Red Planet, which has receded into ice at the poles, is believed to have seeped underground into unseen aquifers. The heat generated by the magma keeps the water liquid, providing a fertile medium for single-celled organisms.
And these organisms may have appeared when Mars still had oceans and rivers, or it may have appeared 3 billion years after Mars lost most of its atmosphere and water. ◇