Evidence of volcanic spatter cone on Mars

Evidence of volcanic spatter cone on Mars

by Clarence Oxford

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 04, 2024

A team led by the University of Idaho has identified what appears to be a volcanic spatter cone on Mars, marking the first confirmed evidence of such a feature on the planet. This discovery was made during a collaborative research project involving postdoctoral researcher Ian T.W. Flynn, who worked under Erika Rader, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Spatial Sciences at the University of Idaho.

Flynn conducted a comparative study, analyzing a volcanic vent on Mars and comparing it with a spatter cone formed during the 2021 eruption of Fagradalsfjall in Iceland. His investigation included detailed morphological analysis and ballistic modeling, leading him to conclude that the Martian feature closely resembles spatter cones commonly found on Earth.

“Spatter cones are so common on Earth that it seemed extremely unlikely that they simply didn’t exist on Mars,” Rader explained. “Since spatter cones can only form in the right conditions, their presence gives us a benchmark to shoot for when simulating Martian volcanoes.”

Spatter cones are created during volcanic eruptions when hot lava fragments, or spatter, fall back to the surface, accumulating and solidifying into cone-shaped features. These formations are typically associated with sustained periods of lava fountaining, and are found in volcanic regions on Earth, including Idaho’s Craters of the Moon National Monument. Although their presence on Mars had been theorized, this study provides the first concrete evidence of such volcanic activity.

Flynn commented on the significance of this discovery, saying, “The similarity between the Mars and Icelandic spatter cones indicates that the eruption dynamics occurring in Iceland, over the last several years, also occurred on Mars. This is exciting as it expands the range of volcanic eruption styles possible on Mars.”

This finding not only sheds light on Martian volcanic activity but also offers valuable insights into the environmental conditions and gas compositions present during eruptions on Mars millions of years ago. Additionally, it draws parallels between volcanic processes on Earth, particularly in Iceland and Idaho, and those on the Red Planet.

“We are thrilled about this discovery because it fills a distinct observational gap in Martian volcanology, and it lays the groundwork for future investigations of spatter features on Mars,” Flynn added.

Flynn, now a research assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, continues to collaborate with Rader on this ongoing research.

Full caption: Fig. 1. (a) Nadir displayed HiRISE image (ESP_011413_1790) of the potential Martian spatter cone, located south of Pavonis Mons (1 degrees 5.45′ S and 113 degrees 24.71′ W). (b) Nadir displayed Pleiades visible image from 27 July 2021 (63 degrees 53.44′ N and 22 degrees 16.13′ W). (c) and (d) are hillshade DEMs of the Martian (2 vertical exaggeration) and Fagradalsfjall spatter cone (6 September 2022) (1 vertical exaggeration) volcanic vents, respectively. Black outlines in (c) and (d) indicate the exterior extent of the vent, and the black line transects are shown in Fig. 2 . (e) and (f) and zoomed in regions shown in (a), and (g) and (h) are zoomed in regions shown in (b).