The Martian volcano Arsia Mons could host one of the most habitable environments on the Red Planet , according to research by a team of geologists from Brown University (Rhode Island), in which NASA and Arizona State University have also participated.
The study reveals that a series of volcanic eruptions that occurred under a large ice sheet could produce a considerable amount of liquid water , and therefore life, on the surface of Mars 210 million years ago. The heat from the eruptions must have formed large lakes in that relatively recent past in cosmological terms.
At almost twice the altitude of Everes t, Arsia Mons is the third highest volcano on Mars and one of the largest mountains in the Solar System. New studies of the surrounding terrain formations seem to indicate that the eruptions on the volcano’s northwest flank occurred at the same time that an immense glacier covered the region about 210 million years ago.
The heat of the volcanic activity would have melted large amounts of ice to form lakes like liquid bubbles inside the glacier. It would be hundreds of cubic kilometers of liquid water, according to the calculations of Kat Scanlon, from Brown University and director of the research, who indicated that “where there is water there can be life.”
Although 210 million years may not sound like a very recent date, the reality is that the environment of Arsia Mons is much younger than other potentially habitable areas of Mars discovered by Curiosity and other Martian expedition vehicles, and that were formed ago about 2.5 billion years.
This new study confirms the suspicions that existed since the 70s that the northwest flank of the volcano would have been covered with ice . Similarly, other research conducted in 2003 by geologists Jim Head and David Marchant showed that the surrounding terrain of Arsia Mons strikingly resembled the formations created by receding glaciers in the arid valleys of Antarctica.
The parallel mountain ranges at the base of the mountain were probably the remains of ancient moraines. Using data obtained by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, Scanlon found lava formations like those created on Earth by volcanic eruptions at the bottom of the oceans, as well as lava-like ridges and mountains. encased in glacial ice.
