Exploding volcanoes explain weird Mars rock
The eruptions went on to shape the strange landscape that is Medusae Fossae and led to a planet-wide ocean
Huge volcanic eruptions may have changed the face of Mars over the course of 500 million years, and even caused an ocean to wash over the entire planet. That's the conclusion of a new study by Lujendra Ojha, a planetary scientist at John Hopkins University in Maryland, USA, who says it has the potential to alter scientific understanding of Mars' make-up.
Ojha's research centred on the Medusae Fossae Formation, a large geological unit of probable volcanic origin on Mars. Its hilly, steep nature contrasts with the flatter surrounding environment but, by looking at radar and gravity data, Ojha and his fellow researcher, Kevin Lewis, found the area to be less dense than the rest of the Red Planet's crust.
Since the density near-matched the terrestrial rock ignimbrite that forms on Earth after volcanic gases cool into solids, it offers evidence that Medusae Fossae was formed by deposits or porous rock from volcanic eruptions staring 3 billion years ago. For it to have affected such a wide area, however, means the explosions would have needed to be gigantic. If that was the case, then huge amounts of carbon dioxide and methane is likely to have been ejected into the atmosphere, and the greenhouse effect would have had widespread consequences.
Most crucially this would have led to a global ocean that was nine centimetres deep. Meanwhile, the atmosphere would have been affected by hydrogen sulphide and sulphur affecting the potential for life. It also drives a nail into conspiracy theories that Medusae Fossae was the landing site for UFOs, but that was always a farfetched idea.