Mars would have known super eruptions

Recent research has shown that Mars was marked by a series of super volcanic eruptions about 4 billion years ago. At that time, the Red Planet would have been very different from what it is today, because of the dust and toxic gases it released. The red planet that we currently know would have been gentler, probably more hospitable, because of the impacts that these elements had on its atmosphere.

This series of powerful and explosive volcanic super-eruptions is said to have unfolded over a period of approximately 500 million years.

Image par OpenClipart-Vectors de Pixabay

These would number from 1,000 to 2,000. The researchers who made the discovery used data obtained from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Compact Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM).

The results of the study were published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The team hopes this data will pave the way for further research into the history of the Red Planet.

Thousands of super eruptions in Arabia Terra?

Note that there is a difference between a simple eruption and a volcanic super-eruption. Super eruptions are the most powerful of all known volcanic eruptions. They are magnitude eight. This is the highest scale of the explosive index of volcanoes. Such an event projects more than 1,000 cubic kilometers of material into the atmosphere and thousands of kilometers around it.

What particularly puzzles the researchers is that instead of occurring in different places as current models predict, these super eruptions took place in a specific region. This is a Martian territory called Arabia Terra. It interests researchers because it is characterized by what appears a priori as impact craters.

However, studies have suggested that they are more like calderas. These are depressions left after a supervolcano has blown its chimney. When the magma is evacuated, the rock above it no longer has any support and collapses into a kind of abyss.

Significant changes in the Martian climate?

Each of these eruptions would have significantly impacted the climate and atmosphere of the Red Planet. According to Patrick Whelley of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, it is likely that the gas released made the atmosphere thicker, or blocked the Sun and made the atmosphere cooler.

“People are going to read our article and say to themselves, ‘How? How could Mars have done this? How can such a tiny planet melt enough rock to fuel thousands of super eruptions in one place? “I hope these questions will lead to much more research. “

Jacob Richardson de la NASA Goddard

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