Keith Cooper is a freelance science journalist and editor in the United Kingdom, and has a degree in physics and astrophysics from the University of Manchester.
The alluring pit crater on Arsia Mons, imaged by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.has generated excitement recently because of what it could reveal beneath the surface of the Red Planet. Here's what that means.
The presence of these so-called holes on the flanks of volcanoes is a big clue that they are probably connected to volcanic activity on Mars. Channels of lava can flow away from a volcano underground; when the volcano grows extinct, the channel empties. That leaves behind a long, underground tube. We see such tubes not only on Mars, but also on theSometimes, if the crust is thin enough, the ceiling of these tubes collapses.
However, pits on the moon have been shown to have boulder-strewn floors that appear as though they could lead to a larger subterranean volume. We can see a similar phenomenon on Earth, in the form of a geological feature called a karst, which forms when limestone bedrock dissolves and weakens, creating pits and sinkholes that open up into areas of groundwater. If that is the case on Mars, then, if the Red Planet ever once had, those organisms may have sheltered in karsts. Indeed, running water down the flank of an active volcano would have been warm, providing the perfect protected environment for life to flourish and stay safe.
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