Scientists say that Mars had huge carbonated water geysers, five episodes of volcanic activity, and a tough funding cut in the 2009 budget. The geysers spread hailstones and mud for several kilometers and would have dwarfed Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park (the weaker Martian gravity helps). Deep water (3-4 km down) gathering carbon dioxide from the rock below is hypothesized to be the source of the power of the geysers, which are not billions of years old, but less then 20 million years old.
New data from the European Mars Express spacecraft have helped scientist map out five episodes of volcanic activity based on the cratering record. They hypothesize that the volcanic activity is episodic due to Mars’ lack of plate tectonics — that the heat builds up so much that it causes the crust to crack in some places and release lava out onto the surface. This bursting of the crust may also cause a release of underground water reservoirs, resulting in wide scale flash flooding.
According to Space.com’s article, "These episodes may not be over."
Because Mars’ core is still hot, it is possible that we may see another episode of volcanic activity and wide spread flooding erupt.
Meanwhile, back on Earth another eruption is going on. That of the science community reacting to cuts to continued missions to Mars. Last week Steve Squires, Principle Investigator for the Mars Exploration Rovers and a professor at Cornell, testified on the hill. Plans to continue to send missions to Mars at most of the every-other-year launch opportunities (when the planets are best aligned to swing out to Mars) have been scrapped after 2013.
Jeff Foust’s writes a summary of the state of Mars exploration that is important reading for those committed to the future of Mars.
“In my mind, the big difference in the Mars program has been this continuous investigation and the permanent presence of these robotic scientific stations,” JPL Director Charles Elachi said. “I hope the program will continue doing that.”
New data from the European Mars Express spacecraft have helped scientist map out five episodes of volcanic activity based on the cratering record. They hypothesize that the volcanic activity is episodic due to Mars’ lack of plate tectonics — that the heat builds up so much that it causes the crust to crack in some places and release lava out onto the surface. This bursting of the crust may also cause a release of underground water reservoirs, resulting in wide scale flash flooding.
According to Space.com’s article, "These episodes may not be over."
Because Mars’ core is still hot, it is possible that we may see another episode of volcanic activity and wide spread flooding erupt.
Meanwhile, back on Earth another eruption is going on. That of the science community reacting to cuts to continued missions to Mars. Last week Steve Squires, Principle Investigator for the Mars Exploration Rovers and a professor at Cornell, testified on the hill. Plans to continue to send missions to Mars at most of the every-other-year launch opportunities (when the planets are best aligned to swing out to Mars) have been scrapped after 2013.
Jeff Foust’s writes a summary of the state of Mars exploration that is important reading for those committed to the future of Mars.
“In my mind, the big difference in the Mars program has been this continuous investigation and the permanent presence of these robotic scientific stations,” JPL Director Charles Elachi said. “I hope the program will continue doing that.”