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Mars Volcanoes May Still Erupt
Q3vi1 writes "Space. com reports, Images from a European space probe reveal recent glacial deposits and lava flows on Mars that suggest the red planet is more active than many scientists had thought."
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Volcanic eruptions have happened in the last 4 million years....
:)
That's only about 15 iterations "emerge kde" on my gentoo laptop
Why is this interesting? I'm not intersted in the universe much, can someone explain the importance of this please?
Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'.
If it's as recent as 4 million years that would put to bed the dead Mars theory. The idea that Mars lacks a molten core. If there was magma that recently there would still be a molten core. It would take hundreds of millions if not billions of years to go from volcanic to a cold core. There would almost have to be liquid underground water. Good news for life and also water for explorers.
Well, we have only been closely looking at mars for (in an astronomical sense) a fraction of a second. Just because there hasn't been any evidence of eruption yet doesn't really mean anything.
Mars does have a molten core, according to JPL. Strikingly similar to both earth, and venus. Interesting stuff, none the less.
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
1.The Great Machine has awakened and is starting the terraforming process.
2.Didn't you folks play Doom3? Hello Hellgate.
Maybe this is some elaborate backstory hype before they release DN: Forever?
If volcanoes supposably created our atmosphere does that mean that if we leave Mars alone for a few million years it will produce it's own life? (Non-bacterial)
Have you metaroderated recently?
"Regions that are smooth as a baby's bottom must have been "resurfaced" recently, in geologist's parlance."
My babies bottom is typically surfaced in an unidentifiable brown pitted substance, and is far from smooth.
Think you can program? Prove it @ the geek challenges
So where are the little green men?
...suggest the red planet is more active than many scientists had thought<snip/>
Usually that's something the parents discover...
http://efil.blogspot.com/
Duke's brother, the Mars scientist Gerhard Nukem, has mysteriosly disappeared.
Was he kidnapped?
Is there a relation to the strange activities on Mars?
And why is every information about the volcanic activities strictly confidential? Who's behind the organization ESA?
To find out, Duke must go to Mars...
Coming next, uhm, summer: DN:Forever.
I don't need a signature.
Anyone have a clue?
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
The question is rather, is the spirit stoned?
OR
is the spirit just stuck?
OR
Has there been to much to drink?
There goes the planet...
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
(don't bother submitting it as a story, I already tried.)
Maybe this is some elaborate backstory hype before they release DN: Forever?
It seems that recently everything funny is being modded as off-topic...?
Everything slightly ironic is modded as Troll.
I guess some people here really have no sense of humor...
Mars Volcanoes May Still Erupt
so beware when u play doom3 !
fifteen jugglers, five believers
I think now is an excellent time for me to state what I feel are some fundamental problems here, along with a few simple solutions. After all, it is better to solve problems than to simply whine about them.
The parent post is but one of many posts here that is modded down, and will go unnoticed. Does this truly benefit anyone? No, not really. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the majority of the readers here are mature enough to handle any and all posts, regardless of their eventual moderations. Yes, even the -1 Troll posts, goatse ASCII and all, are appropriate reading material. We're not mental children. We can, and should, be expected to withstand the blather of every member here who actually bothers to post.
Furthermore, I would like to state that there is too much pressure being placed upon the moderators to "protect" the average reader here from "bad" posts. The moderators aren't perfect, but honestly, are they being paid to provide the service of moderation to Slashdot? I believe not. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last time I checked, their work was done pro bono. I'm sure some of the moderators enjoy their perceived power. Sadly, mod points are more of a burden than anything else, and they can even push moderators away from discussions(the mods would rather moderate than reply, etc).
To make matters worse, the work of moderators is constantly trivialized by editors who can arbitrarily moderate posts to -1. Why have moderators if you're unwilling to invest any trust in them at all?
A few solutions:
1). Readers should elect to browse at -1. Really. Of what are you afraid?
2). Save a moderator some trouble by either refusing to metamoderate, or metamoderate every moderation as unfair/unfunny. Moderators will be better off either without our interference, or without their mod points.
3). Eventually, the editors should force all ACs and registered non-subscribers to browse at -1 at all times, without any ability to adjust thresholds. The moderation system should, effectively, only be relevant to subscribers. I'm sure the editors would appreciate the resulting increase in revenues.
Earth's magnetic field exchange its poles from times to times, doesn't it? So, a tentative explanation for the lack of a Martian magnetic field despite its molten core would be that Mars also exchange poles from times to times and coincidentally we are observing the planet during one of the transitions (when the magnetism would weaken and eventually reach zero). Of course, in order to test this theory, geologic, or better saying, "areologic" evidence would have to be corrected. (The flips of Earth's magnetic field were discovered by analysing the magnetic alignment of the crystal in rocks of different ages, as far as I remember.)
If there's a molten core, how come there's no magnetic field? Any areologists able to comment?
No one has realized this, but the human race has been watched by closely with envious eyes by Martians.
They are the ones who mysteriously clean the Rovers....although iam befuddled why.
They are vanguard of an invading army....
Just in time for Steven Spielberg's movie opening...Boy what a chance for him!!!
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
I distinctly remember reading in Dickinson, Sagan and Clarke books back in the 80s that Olympus was an active volcano. The "largest active volcano in the solar system".
That's the first Soviet Russia joke that I've actually found funny.
if the environmentalists are going to say that the increase in CO2 on Mars is not caused by the volcano but actually from man and their inventions. Of course they prolly wont even care about Mars, so self-centered...
I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. - Catcher in the Rye
I know Americans are fond of verbing nouns, but adjectiving them unnecessarily is almost as painful.
Either "Martian Volcanoes May Still Erupt" or "Mars' Volcanoes May Still Erupt" would be correct. I know that similar practices are accepted when the normal adjective is inappropriate for some reason (thus the "England football team" rather than "English..."), but I can't see any reason to do so here.
youve got it all wrong.
Somebody has opened up a gateway to hell (which for those who dont know, makes it kind of toasty)
Anyone else bothered by the phrase "Martian geology?" Couldn't this be compressed to "areology?"
It depends on the scale of this image... If the little round "pebbles" are actually big boulders, then that's a decent sized pond or small lake.
Just how big do you think the rovers are? That was taken by Opportunity.
That was taken on the crater wall. There are other pictures that show the surrounding area and it's obvious that it's not water or ice. That one frame that you showed does look like ice/water, but when you see a wider angle shot of the area you can tell that it's not ice/water.
j pg
The angle that the "puddle" is laying on the wall tells you that it isn't liquid, since it would run downhill.
Here's a high res pic of an area nearby:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA07083.
You can see that the "puddles" are actually deposits of fine sand that are dark in color.
Spelling aside, the grandparent is correct in reporting NOVA.g ins.html (pbs.org)
see:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3111_ori
It says: "Without Earth's liquid iron core, life would be in trouble. This swirling ball of molten iron is what generates the magnetic field around our planet. And we need that magnetic field because every day a deadly stream of electrically charged particles bombards the Earth.
Ejected by the sun in monstrous solar flares, these particles hurtle through space at about a million miles an hour, forming what is known as the solar wind. Some think that if the solar wind ever reached our planet, it would strip away the atmosphere. But Earth's magnetic field creates a protective shield that deflects these deadly particles."
So maybe NEIL deGRASSE TYSON is wrong.
He said the orbiter^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H , erm, Slashdot users might get lucky in coming years and "see some action, but the chances are slim."
Sorry, fellow geeks, no action for us anytime soon.
I for one welcome our magma martian overlords
lick the cancle button (at least thats what our Chinese QA says)
Your Martian life experience is a tad low. Traces of what might have been Mars bacteria have been found in a rock from Mars.
Actually, the methane on Mars is being interpreted as being the waste product of bacteria which may be eating a food source.
If that is the case, we are quite lucky to have gotten to Mars right now. The bacteria will die when the food is exhausted. If the food is buried organic matter from a past solar-powered surface life, there is no more food being created. With the huge growth rate of bacteria, they would consume any food source in a short time. Either their metabolic rate is excruciatingly slow or the access to the food supply is restricted.
The deep hot biosphere viewpoint is that methane is probably created by geologic/chemical processes, and is the food source for deep-living bacteria. So the methane on Mars might just be rock gas and not a sign of life. But if methane is reaching the atmosphere, there still is a supply which may be feeding bacteria.
One part of the deep biosphere theory is that the food source for bacteria has to be unavailable to the bacteria, and the food is only available at a restricted rate. Methane from depths which are too hot for bacteria would allow life to exist for as long a time as the methane continues to trickle up to cooler regions.
So the methane tells us to keep looking for life, as there is still a food source.
Methane leaking up from deep below also hints at volcanic activity. Carbon fluids are suspected of causing upward cracks and being significant participants in volcanic and earthquake activity on Earth. Volcanoes often emit carbon in several forms. It is hardly surprising for both methane and volcanoes to be present.