Author Topic: Giant mantle plume reveals Mars is more active than previously thought  (Read 405 times)

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Offline Kamaji

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Giant mantle plume reveals Mars is more active than previously thought

Date: December 5, 2022
Source: University of Arizona
Summary: Orbital observations unveil the presence of an enormous mantle plume pushing the surface of Mars upward and driving intense volcanic and seismic activity. The discovery reveals that Mars, like Earth and Venus, possesses an active interior, which challenges current views on the evolution of the red planet.

On Earth, shifting tectonic plates reshuffle the planet's surface and make for a dynamic interior, so the absence of such processes on Mars led many to think of it as a dead planet, where not much happened in the past 3 billion years.

In the current issue of Nature Astronomy, scientists from the University of Arizona challenge current views of Martian geodynamic evolution with a report on the discovery of an active mantle plume pushing the surface upward and causing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The finding suggests that the planet's deceptively quiet surface may hide a more tumultuous interior than previously thought.

"Our study presents multiple lines of evidence that reveal the presence of a giant active mantle plume on present-day Mars," said Adrien Broquet, a postdoctoral research associate in the UArizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and co-author of the study with Jeff Andrews-Hanna, an associate professor of planetary science at the LPL.

Mantle plumes are large blobs of warm and buoyant rock that rise from deep inside a planet and push through its intermediate layer -- the mantle -- to reach the base of its crust, causing earthquakes, faulting and volcanic eruptions. The island chain of Hawaii, for example, formed as the Pacific plate slowly drifted over a mantle plume.

"We have strong evidence for mantle plumes being active on Earth and Venus, but this isn't expected on a small and supposedly cold world like Mars," Andrews-Hanna said. "Mars was most active 3 to 4 billion years ago, and the prevailing view is that the planet is essentially dead today."

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Source:  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/12/221205121545.htm

Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Giant mantle plume reveals Mars is more active than previously thought
« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2023, 08:30:43 pm »
Olympus Mons came from somewhere...
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline Kamaji

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Re: Giant mantle plume reveals Mars is more active than previously thought
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2023, 08:53:03 pm »
Olympus Mons came from somewhere...

Yes, but the point of the article was that they have evidence for a "currently active" mantle plume - not merely evidence that Mars had mantle plumes in the past (that is not in contention).

Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Giant mantle plume reveals Mars is more active than previously thought
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2023, 02:34:43 am »
Yes, but the point of the article was that they have evidence for a "currently active" mantle plume - not merely evidence that Mars had mantle plumes in the past (that is not in contention).
True enough, but just because the mountain has lain dormant in the scant time we have been able to observe it, does not mean it could not erupt again. Volcanoes are volcanoes, and without evidence indicating it is dead, an eruption remains a possibility.

Indications of current Mantle activity on Mars may indicate potential for the planet to be more geologically dynamic than previously supposed.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline Kamaji

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Re: Giant mantle plume reveals Mars is more active than previously thought
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2023, 12:48:50 pm »
True enough, but just because the mountain has lain dormant in the scant time we have been able to observe it, does not mean it could not erupt again. Volcanoes are volcanoes, and without evidence indicating it is dead, an eruption remains a possibility.

Indications of current Mantle activity on Mars may indicate potential for the planet to be more geologically dynamic than previously supposed.

WADR, I think you’re missing the point of the article.