Newly discovered giant volcano is located in the “middle of the action” on Mars. Topographic map showing the iconic location of the Noctis volcano between the largest volcanic and canyon provinces on Mars. (Credit: Background image: NASA Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) digital elevation model. Geologic interpretation & annotations by Pascal Lee and Sourabh Shubham 2024).
In a new possible sign of life on Mars, scientists from the SETI Institute and the Mars Institute based at NASA Ames Research Center say they have discovered a “deeply rooted” giant volcano on the planet. They said the volcano, which was “hiding in plain sight” near Mars’ equator, has even been active through recent times and that there are possible remnants of glacier ice near its base. Its discovery, they proclaimed, points to an “exciting new place to search for life, and a potential destination for future robotic and human exploration.”
But don’t fuel up your space rockets just yet. We are still a long way away from determining if there actually is water on Mars and finding ways to live there. Besides, Mars does not have a breathable atmosphere, is really cold and only has a fraction of Earth’s gravity.
The scientists explained that several clues, taken together, “give away the volcanic nature of the jumble of layered mesas and canyons” in this eastern part of Noctis Labyrinthus. The central summit area is marked by several elevated mesas forming an arc, reaching a regional high and sloping downhill away from the summit area. The gentle outer slopes extend out to 225 kilometers (140 miles) away in different directions. A caldera remnant – the remains of a collapsed volcanic crater once host to a lava lake – can be seen near the center of the structure. Lava flows, pyroclastic deposits (made of volcanic particulate materials such as ash, cinders, pumice and tephra) and hydrated mineral deposits occur in several areas within the structure’s perimeter.
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“We were examining the geology of an area where we had found the remains of a glacier last year when we realized we were inside a huge and deeply eroded volcano,” said Dr. Pascal Lee, planetary scientist with the SETI Institute and the Mars Institute based at NASA Ames Research Center, and the lead author of the study.
“This area of Mars is known to have a wide variety of hydrated minerals spanning a long stretch of Martian history. A volcanic setting for these minerals had long been suspected. So, it may not be too surprising to find a volcano here,” explained Sourabh Shubham, a graduate student at the University of Maryland’s Department of Geology and the study’s co-author. “In some sense, this large volcano is a long-sought ‘smoking gun’”.
In addition to the volcano, the study reports the discovery of a large, 5000 square kilometer (1930 square mile) area of volcanic deposits within the volcano’s perimeter presenting a large number of low, rounded and elongated, blister-like mounds. This “blistered terrain” is interpreted to be a field of “rootless cones,” mounds produced by explosive steam venting or steam swelling when a thin blanket of hot volcanic materials comes to rest on top of a water or ice-rich surface
