Mars experienced 500-million-years of volcanic eruptions, confirms NASA

Mars, the neighbouring red planet, has experienced thousands of massive and ancient volcanic eruptions in the past few centuries, confirmed NASA in its latest revelation. Scientists found out that a region of northern Mars called 'Arabia Terra' experienced thousands of "super-eruptions," the biggest volcanic eruptions known. As per the agency, these explosions tore through the Martian surface over a 500-million-year period about four billion years ago, spewing water vapour, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide into the air. 

Martian volcanos could fill millions of swimming pools

Scientists found evidence for thousands of such eruptions by studying the topography and mineral composition of a portion of the Arabia Terra region in northern Mars. Some volcanoes can produce eruptions so powerful they release oceans of dust and toxic gases into the air, blocking out sunlight and changing a planet’s climate for decades, and Mars was no exception. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center geologist Patrick Whelley explained that each of these ''super-eruptions'' would have had a significant climate impact that made the atmosphere thicker and made the atmosphere colder by blocking the sun. 

NASA revealed that the ancient massive volcanos produced molten rock and gas equivalent of 400 million Olympic-size swimming pools and spread a thick blanket of ash up to thousands of miles from the eruption site. Following this, volcano of this magnitude collapses into a giant hole called a “caldera," which gave the earliest hints that the region may once have hosted volcanoes capable of super-eruptions. Calderas also exist on Earth and can stretch to dozens of miles.

NASA said that these Martian calderas were earlier thought of as craters resulting from asteroid impacts but scientists argued in a 2013 study that they weren’t perfectly round like craters, and had some signs of collapse, such as very deep floors and benches of rock near the walls. Besides, their conclusion was cemented after the scientists found minerals associated with altered volcanic ash on the surface of 'Arabia Terra', stated the agency. Although Mars is known for its Olympus Mons volcano, the biggest in the solar system and 100 times larger by volume than Earth’s largest volcano of Mauna Loa in Hawaii, 'Arabia Terra' so far has the only evidence of explosive volcanoes on Mars. 

(Image: NASA/Unsplash)