Evidence of thousands of ancient volcanoes erupting on the red planet Mars has been found by NASA, the organisation said in a press release this week. The volcanic activity has been tagged as “super eruptions”.
The geological phenomenon was reportedly recorded in Arabia Terra, a region located towards the northern side of the planet. The eruptions spanned over 500 million years and dated back to nearly 4 billion years, according to Fox News reports.
Also Read: ‘Planet Nine’ likely exists in solar system and astronomers know where to look
In a tweet, NASA said, “Evidence has been found that a region of northern Mars has experienced thousands of ‘super eruptions,’ blasting the equivalent of 400 million Olympic-sized swimming pools of molten rock & gas, over 500-million years.”
Also Read: NASA’s Curiosity rover sends panorama to mark 9 years on Mars
The tweet further attached a press release, which highlighted the details about the new findings.
Patrick Whelley, who took the lead on the analytical study of the Arabia Terra region on Mars, said in the release, “Each one of these eruptions would have had a significant climate impact — maybe the released gas made the atmosphere thicker or blocked the sun and made the atmosphere colder”, according to reports from Fox News.
The statement further read, “Modelers of the Martian climate will have some work to do to try to understand the impact of the volcanoes.”
In Pics | SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission splashes down on Earth
Calderas — big sized holes/craters created near the site of a volcanic eruption– were the “first giveaways”, the statement said while explaining the discovery. Seven calderas were found where the investigation was being conducted on the red planet.
The calderas found on the red planet were previously believed to be creators made after asteroid impacts. However, further investigations and a closer look revealed that the area had signs of collapse and were not perfectly round, instances that are considered anomalies in case of an asteroid impact.
