{"id":28083,"date":"2022-12-06T15:08:19","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T15:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=28083"},"modified":"2022-12-06T15:08:19","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T15:08:19","slug":"active-mantle-plume-indicates-mars-more-active-previously-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/active-mantle-plume-indicates-mars-more-active-previously-thought\/28083\/","title":{"rendered":"Active mantle plume indicates Mars is more active than previously thought"},"content":{"rendered":"
Many have thought that Mars has been a dead planet for at least three billion years due to the apparent absence of shifting tectonic plates on the planet\u2019s surface. However, scientists from the University of Arizona are challenging Mars\u2019 geodynamic evolution with a report on the discovery of an active mantle plume pushing the surface upward, causing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.<\/p>\n
The study, \u2018Geophysical evidence for an active mantle plume underneath Elysium Planitia on Mars<\/a>,\u2019 published in Nature Astronomy, <\/em>suggests that the planet may have a more tumultuous interior than previously thought.<\/p>\n “Our study presents multiple lines of evidence that reveal the presence of a giant active mantle plume on present-day Mars,” said Adrien Broquet, a postdoctoral research associate in the UArizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and co-author of the study with Jeff Andrews-Hanna, an associate professor of planetary science at the LPL.<\/p>\n Mantle plumes are blobs of warm and buoyant rock that rise from deep inside a planet, pushing their way through the mantle in order to reach the base of its crust, resulting in earthquakes, faulting, and volcanic eruptions. For example, the island chain of Hawaii was formed as the Pacific plate slowly moved over a mantle plume.<\/p>\n “We have strong evidence for mantle plumes being active on Earth and Venus, but this isn’t expected on a small and supposedly cold world like Mars,” Andrews-Hanna said. “Mars was most active three to four billion years ago, and the prevailing view is that the planet is essentially dead today.”<\/p>\n “A tremendous amount of volcanic activity early in the planet’s history built the tallest volcanoes in the solar system and blanketed most of the northern hemisphere in volcanic deposits,” Broquet said. “What little activity has occurred in recent history is typically attributed to passive processes on a cooling planet.”<\/p>\n The researchers were drawn to a region on Mars called Elysium Planitia, a plain within Mars\u2019 northern lowlands, close to the equator. This area, unlike other volcanic regions on Mars, has experienced a surprising amount of activity, with large eruptions occurring in the area over the past 200 million years.<\/p>\n “Previous work by our group found evidence in Elysium Planitia for the youngest volcanic eruption known on Mars,” Andrews-Hanna said. “It created a small explosion of volcanic ash around 53,000 years ago, which in geologic time is essentially yesterday.”<\/p>\n The volcanism in this area originates from the Cerberus Fossae, a set of young fissures that stretch for more than 800 miles across the Martian surface. NASA\u2019s Insight team<\/a> has recently discovered that most marsquakes come from this region. The underlying cause of this volcanic activity remains unknown, despite it being well-studied.<\/p>\n On Earth, volcanism and earthquakes are associated with mantle plumes or plate tectonics. “We know that Mars does not have plate tectonics, so we investigated whether the activity we see in the Cerberus Fossae region could be the result of a mantle plume,” Broquet said.<\/p>\n Mantle plumes reveal their presence on Earth through the material pushing the surface, subsequently stretching the crust. Molten rock then erupts as flood basalts, creating volcanic plains.<\/p>\n Through the study of Elysium Planitia, the team found evidence of the same sequence of events occurring on Mars. Mars\u2019 surface has been uplifted by more than a mile, with analysis discovering that this uplift is supported from deep within the planet, consistent with the presence of a mantle plume.<\/p>\nAn active mantle plume on Mars<\/h3>\n
Studying Elysium Planitia<\/h3>\n