surface of Mars
Scientists have found that an unusual rock type spotted by two vehicles on Mars may indicate that the current shape of Mars was the result of very violent volcanic eruptions.
NASA’s Perseverance rover is exploring the Nelly Fossai region of Mars, which includes Jezero crater, an area filled with rocks composed of volcanic minerals, where the same rock layers rich in the same minerals were found in Joseph’s crater, and it was roamed in that region by NASA’s Spirit rover. .
A team led by planetary geologist Steve Raff of Arizona examined data from the two Mars rover to confirm geological similarities, suggesting that local rocks may have formed through similar processes. The scientists then compared Spirit images of Joseph Crater with images of Earth rocks.
“That was the Eureka moment,” Rove said in a statement. “I was seeing the same kind of textures in the Josef crater rocks as those in a very specific type of igneous rock found here on Earth.”
According to Ruff, this rock is ingimbrite, which is created from the ash, pumice and lava flows of powerful volcanic eruptions.
“No one has ever suggested imperites as an explanation for olive-rich bedrock on Mars, and it’s likely that this is the type of rock that the Perseverance rover has been cruising and sampling over the past year,” Ruff said.
Although researchers have long assumed that volcanoes were responsible for the production of Nili Fossae olivine, after all a volcanic mineral, identification of egembrite, if proven accurate, would indicate that the eruptions were more catastrophic than previously thought.
“Imagine a cloud of hot, earth-hugging gases, ash and nearly molten pumice, flowing across the landscape for tens of miles and accumulating in layers hundreds of feet thick in a few days,” Rove says.
To confirm the presence of egimbrite on Mars, scientists say they will have to study the rocks in a land-based laboratory, another reason for a planned Mars mission to transport persistence samples to Earth.