Volcanism much more recent than thought - New findings suggest volcanism 1 My ago

lunarmark · 2004-08-06 02:21:25

New results just announced, appear to point to volcanism being active on Mars, even as late as 1 million years ago, this has important implications, and could explain the methane detected by ESA and might indicate that the interior is warmer than thought...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3535498.stm]Click here for article

Palomar · 2004-08-06 07:24:19

*Good article. Interesting:

Nick Hoffman of the University of Melbourne, Australia, has suggested that ice towers might form next to steaming hydrothermal vents on Mars. Microbial life forms live on chemical energy in similar ice towers in Antarctica.

*Also:

"There may also be much smaller domes elsewhere that are still active..."

*I'm surprised at that statement (not sure why).

I don't mean to go off-topic...but I can't help wondering about possible future volcanic activity on Mars in conjunction with possible terraforming plans.

--Cindy

Grypd · 2004-08-06 10:44:47

Frankly my first thought was that with volcanism still present the equivalent of Martian hydro-thermic vents could be found, if there is enough heat and liquid water..A Yellowstone on mars almost just no geysers

My second thought oh wow easy to reach hot thermals good hydro power source make martian base easier.

lunarmark · 2004-08-09 02:34:18

There is an interesting article in New scientist (out know).

It is about the centre of the Earth, apparently there is far too much heat to be explained by the conventional 'still molten since it formed' theory, there is just too much heat in the earth to be caused by gravity or be left over from when the earth was formed.

One theory is that fissile radiactive elements ( being the heaviest elements, they they would sink to the core) this would result in a nuclear chain reaction, so the heat could be generated from Nuclear processes!

If the same where true on mars then it could be a lot hotter in there than we think....

Shaun Barrett · 2004-08-09 18:42:20

Thanks for the 'heads up', Lunarmark. I'll be watching out for that article in New Mars.
Incidentally, if you're interested, over at Science and Technology, on Page 19 (Sept. 2002), I started a thread called 'Earth's Reactor Core: Why greenies need nuclear power!'. It was a very short-lived thread (not enough solid evidence I guess), based on the research of Dr. J. Marvin Herndon into the possibility of enormous fission reactors at the cores of planets, including Earth.

At the time, I commented on the possible ramifications of this hypothesis, should it turn out to be true. In particular, I wondered about the evidence for recent volcanism on Mars and how that could be reconciled with the current model of Mars as a planet whose small size must have resulted in its core cooling early in its history. How could there be strong evidence for substantial eruptions of lava within the last 100 million, or even 10 million years, if Mars had lost nearly all its internal heat billions of years ago?
I think Dr. Herndon is probably onto something important and I think the relatively recent lava fields on Mars may be mute testimony to his insight.

atomoid · 2004-08-09 19:55:06

I thought the natural decay of radioactive elements had long been assumed to create a big part of any planet's heat, although i guess were talking about nuclear fission here, as opposed to merely radioactive decay. Either process should keep Mars somewhat molten. I'd assume that this process should be even more likely in the planet's interior than in the crust, and would there be any evidence of it at the surface? could radioactive waste migrate upwards with lava or gasses? On the other hand, im wondering how much of Earth's interior heat is generated by tidal action? http://www.curtin.edu.au/curtin/centre/ … tml]fossil reactor info

Natural fission reactors (NFR) are high-grade uranium deposits in which self-sustained fission chain reactions took place approximately 2 billion years ago. Found only in southeast Gabon, Africa, they are unique physical phenomena in the Earth's crust and the only place where some minerals are composed of elements with nonprimordial isotopic abundance. Despite great efforts, evidence for large-scale nuclear reactions has not been found anywhere else. Natural fission reactors have recently been studied as "natural analogs" for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste in the lithosphere, because they provide the exceptional opportunity to study geochemical behavior of natural fission products that do not normally occur in any significant quantities.

RobS · 2004-08-09 23:19:04

Everyone agrees the inside of Mars is somewhat hot; the question is, how hot is it. The core could be "hot" but not hot enough to be liquid, thus precluding generation of a magnetic field. The earth has both a solid metallic core and a liquid metallic core; it's a function of the balance between pressure and temperature. Similarly, the earth has a solid mantle, but near its top, pressure is lowest but temperature is still relatively high, so the mantle is partially molten. This zone is called the asthenosphere (asthen- Greek for "weak"). Mars probably has an asthenosphere as well, but deeper in the mantle, and it probably less melted, thus generating less magma.

-- RobS

lunarmark · 2004-08-11 07:40:49

This paper is interesting ...

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articl … 87]Fission in the core

Gives a mechanism by which fission can take place in the core.

Earth appears to have formed a lot closer to the sun than it is now, therefore the orbit it originated in means it is had lower oxygen levels in the rock (i.e Earth is made from Enstatite chondrite material) this means that Uranium metal would tend to form Sulphides instead of oxides (because of the low Oxygen ratio) and not be bound up in the mantle rock very much, but countinue into the core during differentiation.

Thus there could be a lot of Uranium (and similar heavy elements very near/in the core. enough to sustain extra heating compared to just the residual heat left over from formation.

if Mars had a similar mechanism (its a big if) and if mars maybe has a lower Iron content than thought, due to some historical formation event (we dont know much about Mars's interior or history) it is possible that mars would have a weak magnetic field but still be quite geologically active due to fission still taking place. Hence there may be volcanism still present.

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#1 2004-08-06 02:21:25

Re: Volcanism much more recent than thought - New findings suggest volcanism 1 My ago

#2 2004-08-06 07:24:19

Re: Volcanism much more recent than thought - New findings suggest volcanism 1 My ago

#3 2004-08-06 10:44:47

Re: Volcanism much more recent than thought - New findings suggest volcanism 1 My ago

#4 2004-08-09 02:34:18

Re: Volcanism much more recent than thought - New findings suggest volcanism 1 My ago

#5 2004-08-09 18:42:20

Re: Volcanism much more recent than thought - New findings suggest volcanism 1 My ago

#6 2004-08-09 19:55:06

Re: Volcanism much more recent than thought - New findings suggest volcanism 1 My ago

#7 2004-08-09 23:19:04

Re: Volcanism much more recent than thought - New findings suggest volcanism 1 My ago

#8 2004-08-11 07:40:49

Re: Volcanism much more recent than thought - New findings suggest volcanism 1 My ago

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