Martian Volcanoes and Olympus Mons
Why does Mars have the largest volcanoes in the solar system, and why does it have such a wide range of other volcanic features? The geology of the red planet consists of large volcanic cones, volcanic plains, five giant shield volcanoes—with Martian volcanism located in three regions: Tharsis, Elysium, and the Hellas impact basin and the Martian plain comprised of dusty remnants of Mars’ past volcanic activity. All of this has caused great interest and excitement on Mars, but its dramatic red color has stimulated interest and fantasy stories of Martians and aliens, along with the fact Mars could be colonized by future humans.
Both the volcanic plains of Mars and the Moon are the same age, which is about 3.5 billion years ago. But for some reason or another, the changing volcanism lasted longer on Mars than it did on the Moon. About three billion years ago, volcanism in the highlands and “mare” plains stopped, with some of the smaller shields and cones erupting as close as two billion years ago. About one and two billion years ago, the giant shield volcanoes were formed with the youngest lava flows on Olympus Mons being only 20 to 200 million years old, representing the last volcanic activity on Mars.
Olympus Mons, which is Latin for “Mount Olympus,” is the tallest volcano and mountain in the Tharsis bulge region and in the whole solar system located on the red planet. Known to the astronomers as the albedo feature, Nix Olympia or the “Snows of Olympus,” the space probes confirmed its identity as a mountain. About three times the elevation of Mount Everest above sea level, it has six overlapping pit craters. It’s large size is because Mars does not have any tectonic plates, leaving the crust fixed over a hot spot with the volcano continuing to discharge to a great height. Described as a shield volcano, it has highly fluid lava that flows out of its volcanic vents over long periods of time. It is suggested that Olympus Mons may yet have some volcanic activity going on.
The total purpose of studying the Martian volcanoes is to see if there has ever been life on the red planet, or if it could sustain future life. Maybe we should ask ourself why we want to go to Mars—are we going for a temporary visit or to stay permanently? If it is just a temporary situation, then terraforming is not necessary. Otherwise, changing the planet to accommodate humans, shelter, and food will change the planet. And when this happens, we will change what we came to like for what it is.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 8:26 pm and is filed under Mission Objectives, Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
