Those Marvelous Martian Mud Volcanoes

When discussing volcanoes, people are likely to mention explosive eruptions, plumes of hot lava, ash from Mt. Tambora giving the world a "year without a summer", and so on. Perhaps some will think of the secret base of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, which later erupted in real life. Not all volcanoes project lava.

Possible mud volcano on Mars, Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Univ. of Arizona

Out yonder in our solar system are volcanoes that present water vapor, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and so forth. Jupiter's moon Io spews lava. It is interesting that there is increasing evidence that Mars had volcanoes that erupted mud, and Mars has landforms that are presumed to have been carved out by water. Some very interesting research and models have been conducted using conditions there. Ironically, secular geologists have no evidence of water on Mars to cause mud volcanoes and landforms, but deny the global Genesis Flood on our planet which is mostly water.

Tens of thousands of volcano-looking features exist across the northern lowlands and other areas across Mars. In the past, these volcanoes were thought to be caused by lava flows from the planet’s interior. However, a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience has postulated that many of these “volcanoes” may have actually flowed mud, not lava.

Petr Brož from the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague and colleagues from several institutions across Europe conducted 21 mudflow experiments. Many of their experiments used subfreezing temperatures and atmospheric pressures less than that of Earth in an attempt to simulate the conditions on Mars.

To finish reading, click on "Many Martian Volcanoes May Be Mudflows".



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