Marte has been generally regarded as a geologically dead planet, however now an international team of researchers led by the ETH Zurichin Switzerland, reports that seismic signals indicate that volcanism is still plays an active role in the formation of the Martian surface, as published in the journal ‘Nature Astronomy’.
The SIX seismometer
Since 2018, when the mission InSight of NASA deployed the SIX seismometer on the surface of Mars, seismologists and geophysicists at ETH Zurich have listened to the seismic beeps of more than 1,300 earthquakes Martians. Time and time again, researchers recorded smaller and larger Mars earthquakes. A detailed analysis of the location and spectral character of the earthquakes was a surprise, according to what they point out.
With epicenters originating in the vicinity of the cerberus fossaa region formed by a series of rifts or grabens, these earthquakes tell a new story that suggests volcanism continues to play an active role in shaping the Martian surface.
The international team of researchers analyzed a group of more than 20 martian earthquakes recent ones that originated in the rift system of the Cerberus Trench. From the seismic data, the scientists concluded that the low-frequency tremors indicate a potentially warm origin that could be explained by the current molten lava, that is, the magma at that depth, and the volcanic activity on Mars. Specifically, they discovered that the tremors are located mainly in the innermost part of the Cerberus Fossa.
When they compared the seismic data with observational images of the same area, they also discovered darker dust deposits not only in the prevailing wind direction, but in multiple directions surrounding the Cerberus Fossa Mantle Unit.
“The darker shade of the dust means geological evidence of more recent volcanic activity, perhaps in the last 50,000 years, relatively young, in geological terms,” he explains. Simon Staehlerlead author of the paper and senior scientist working in the seismology and geodynamics group led by Professor Domenico Giardini in the Institute for Geophysics at ETH Zurich.
Mars is the only planet apart from Earth where scientists have ground vehicles, landers, and now even drones that transmit data. All other planetary exploration, so far, has been based on orbital images.
“The InSight SIX it is the most sensitive seismometer ever installed on another planet, says Domenico Giardini. It offers geophysicists and seismologists the opportunity to work with current data that show what is happening on Mars todayboth on the surface and inside” According to Europa Press.
Seismic data, along with orbital images, ensure a higher degree of confidence for scientific inferences. Mars, one of our closest terrestrial neighbors nearbyit is important to understand similar geological processes on earth. The red planet is the only one we know of, so far, that has a core composition of iron, nickel, and sulfur that could have ever supported a magnetic field.
Topographical evidence also indicates that Mars once hosted large expanses of water and possibly a denser atmosphere. Even today, scientists have found that frozen water still exists in its polar ice caps, although most of it is possibly dry ice. “Although much remains to be learned, the evidence for the existence of a possible magma on Mars is intriguing,” he says. Anna Mittelholzpostdoctoral fellow at ETH Zurich and the Harvard University.
Looking at images of the vast, dry, dusty Martian landscape, it’s hard to imagine that Mars was very much alive some 3.6 billion years ago, at least in a geophysical sense. It spewed out volcanic debris long enough to cause the Tharsis Montes regionthe largest volcanic system in our solar system, and at Mount Olympusa volcano with a height almost three times higher than Mount Everest.
Tremors coming from the nearby Cerberus Pits, named after a creature in Greek mythology known as the hellhound of Hades that watches over the underworld, suggest that Mars not quite dead yet. Here, the weight of the volcanic region is sinking down and forming parallel cracks that separate the crust of Mars, like the cracks that appear on the top of a cake as it bakes.
According to Staehler “it is possible that what we are seeing are the last remnants of this volcanic region that was active or that the magma is moving east right nowtowards the next place of eruption”.
the last precedent
The ‘Rover Perseverance’ of NASA obtained samples of rock cores within an area considered by scientists to be one of the most promising for discovering signs of microbial life on Mars and identified a strong signal of organic matter on Mars: it would be remains of past life on the planet Red.
The analysis indicated that the samples present a class of organic molecules directly related to sulfate minerals: these minerals, found in layers of sedimentary rock, can provide important information about the aqueous environments in which they were formed. In addition, NASA confirmed that the samples contain the highest amount of organic matter identified to date during the current mission.
They may also contain other elements, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. Although there are chemical processes that produce these molecules without requiring the presence of life, some of these compounds are part of the basic chemical components of life. The organic molecules included a diverse variety of compounds, composed mainly of carbon, hydrogen atoms, and oxygen, a compound that has already been produced on Mars.
According to a study published last September in the journal ‘Science Advances’, the device called ‘MOXIE’ efficiently produced oxygen on the scarlet planet, after seven previous tests. It is an instrument the size of a handbag that managed to produce oxygen from the carbon dioxide that dominates the thin atmosphere of Mars and that already produces the same oxygen as a tree throughout the day.
volcanoes in the solar system
Research led by researchers from the University of Maryland and the Institute of Geophysics at ETH Zurich, in Switzerlandpublished last August a study in the magazine ‘Nature Geoscience‘ which provides the first scientific proof that crowns in Venus continue to evolve, indicating that the interior of the planet is in full agitation.
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Venus also has signs of volcanic activity. The surface of Venus is about 90% basalt (it is an extrusive igneous rock of dark color) so the experts approximate the volcanic flows that were formed. It is known that he has about 1600 volcanoesthough none of them appear to be currently active.
On the other hand, Jupiter, Due to its gaseous composition, it does not stand out for its volcanoes, but its satellites do. Ioone of the largest moons of Jupiter, reaches an upward volcanic activity because it produces lava flows, powerful eruptions and volcanic pits.