Massive Mars mountain Maybe there was a volcanic island called Olympus Mons once.
Huge cliffs were built around Olympus Mons as lava flowing down the volcano struck deep sea.
The history of the solar system's largest mountain is fascinating.
According to geological evidence revealed in the massive cliffs that encircle Mars' gigantic Olympus Mons, the planet's largest volcano may have previously been a volcanic island surrounded by an ocean that was almost 4 miles (6 km) deep.
Olympus Mons, which rises 16 miles (25 km) above the Martian plain and has a massive base of roughly 374 miles (601 km) across, is the highest peak known to exist in the solar system. A volcanic crater at the top of the mountain last erupted 25 million years ago. It is situated next to the Tharsis Bulge, a large volcanic plateau that is home to the shield volcanoes Arsia, Pavonis, and Ascraeus Mons in a row.
Olympus Mons resembles volcanic islands on Earth, such the Azores, the Canary Islands, and the Hawaiian islands, according to new research headed by Anthony Hildenbrand of Université Paris-Saclay in France.
The proof may be found in the shape of enormous escarpments, or cliffs, that rise to about 4 miles (6 km) in height all around Olympus Mons. The escarpments, according to Hildenbrand's team, appear to have developed where lava running down the volcano's sides contacted deep ocean water all around it. This event might have occurred between 3.7 and 3.4 billion years ago.
Although researchers have attempted to link the escarpments to liquid water in the past, their precise connection has remained unclear.
If Hildenbrand's team is right, an old coastline may be seen at the summit of the escarpments. Due to the mountain's immense weight, we can see a significant surface dip now surrounding Olympus Mons. Because of the height of the escarpments, this depression would have been filled with ocean water down to a depth of 4 miles (6 km).
A other Martian volcano, Alba Mons, which is about 1,100 miles (1,800 km) distant from Olympus Mons and suggests the potential size of the old ocean, also has similar structures on its northern flank.
Over hot areas in the molten mantle, where convection forces warmer magma to rise in a massive plume, the huge volcanoes of Mars would have developed. According to Hildebrand, "the most probable hypothesis is [that there were] distinct regional plumes under Olympus Mons and Alba Mons, separated at the surface by hundreds of kilometers," rather than all the volcanoes in the area having erupted from a single plume.
Over a considerable region, these plumes forced the surface to protrude outward. Today, we refer to this vast volcanic plateau as the Tharsis Bulge. According to Hildebrand's research, the planet's crust was so severely deformed by the volcanoes' mantle uplift that it moved the location of the ocean around them.
Within the Vastitas Borealis lowland area of Mars, evidence from earlier investigations has revealed the existence of two separate shorelines. The shorelines are many miles apart in height. They had been regarded as proof of the existence of two distinct oceans in Vastitas Borealis, separated by hundreds of millions of years.
Hildenbrand's group believes that there was just one ocean that lasted for a very long time rather than a number of them. We can observe two shorelines that are separated in age because the Tharsis Bulge, which was created when the mantle uplift pressed on the planet's crust and shifted the location of the ocean on Mars.
According to Hildebrand, "the youngest shorelines reported in earlier studies may reflect the closing stages of a main single ocean that was propelled to the west by a significant surface uplift in the Tharsis area."
The discoveries provide planetary scientists more information about the water's past on Mars. It is believed that the ocean was already starting to dry up and retreat when the shoreline altered. This time period may have marked the end of Mars' habitability, if it ever was.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters, a publication, released the study on July 24.