Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of a potential plume on Pavonis Mons.
There are reports tonight that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter photographing the Martian surface noticed an odd plume near the summit of Pavonis Mons. The initial guess was that this plume might have been fog or an new impact on the Martian surface, but the continued presence of the plume might suggest that it is not a transient feature. One suggestion is that these could be a volcanic plume.
Now, Mars has been very volcanically active in the past - in fact the youngest flows could be as young as 20 million years old, so it is definitely not out of the question that volcanic activity could occur on Mars. We should be able to get new images of the area from the MRO sometime later today to confirm this report of the first historic eruption on Mars. You can find more information on images here.
Physical Science
Environment
Comments (39)
Now this could be extremely interesting as Mars is considered to be geologically dead by some within the astronomical community. With the observed lack of water, a volcanic eruption might give humanity its best chance of finding out exactly what lies deep below the Martian surface. Due to the lack of (observed) water, you'd expect Martian volcanism to be constrained within rather narrow parameters. An eruption that emitts not only H2S and CO2 but also substantial amounts of H2O would be of great scientific interest.
Posted by: Henrik | April 1, 2010 4:14 AM