Tens of thousands of lava - like stream dot the surface of Mars , but a fresh work suggest not all of them are in reality lava . Instead , some are mud volcanoes .
Mars has the tallest mountain in the Solar System , a vent called Olympus Mons that ’s three times the size of Everest . This is just one of many examples of volcanism on the Red Planet . Yet despite chiliad of lava - lilke flow , some do n’t expose any other signs of volcanism . The squad discovered they are potential sedimentary deposits , mayhap constitute after catastrophic floods . Water then ooze into the soil and finally remerged as mud volcanoes .
dry land has mud volcanoes so their establishment is certainly possible . However , Mars is colder and has a abject atmospheric pressure than Earth . To essay their surmise , the team recreated the clay volcanoes in a lab . Using a vacuum sleeping room , they made mud flow at a fraction of Earth ’s normal pressing and at a temperature well below zero . The results are published inNature Geoscience .
" We suggest that mud volcanism can explain the shaping of some lava - like flow morphologies on Mars and that similar processes may apply to volcanic eruption of mud on icy bodies in the outer Solar System , like on Ceres , " lead source Dr Petr Brož , from the Institute of Geophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences , said in astatement .
Under Martian conditions , the pee begin to roil and evaporate due to the low pressure . The surface of the mud then freeze due to the low temperature , which lead to the geological formation of form similar topahoehoe , the rippled structure imprint by cooling lava picture typically in Hawaii .
The team consider the same cognitive operation would be even more good ondwarf planet Ceresdue to the lack of atmosphere and cold temperature on the aerofoil . It ’s also possible the process happens on other moons and nanus planets in the solar system .
The authors conclude : " Our results show that it is critical to consider the upshot of the differing environmental conditions on other world surface when compare analogue landofrms observed on Earth with apparently alike gushing morphologies on other bodies . "
