How ancient volcanoes on Mars are rewriting Earth’s history

Volcano has a common feature surface of solid planets Within the solar system.

They occur as a result of Magical activity occurring within the planet’s crust. On Earth, volcanism is driven primarily by heat and crustal recycling associated with plate tectonics, but Mars lacks tectonic plates And the drivers of volcanism are not well understood.

A Investigation Recently created by teacher Joseph Michalski, Geologists from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have revealed interesting information about volcanic activity on Mars.

The expert proposes that There are more diverse volcanoes on Mars than previously thought, Inspired by an early form of crustal recycling called vertical tectonics. The findings, recently published in Nature Astronomy, shed light on their potential implications for understanding Mars’ ancient crust and early crustal recycling on both Mars and Earth.

Traditionally, it is known Mars has large shield volcanoes similar to Hawaii. However, it was not known that various explosive volcanoes also exist on Mars which are formed on Earth due to recycling of the Earth’s crust.

Recent research by Professor Michalski and his international team shows The ancient crust of Mars contains a large number of diverse volcanoes. “We’ve known for decades that there are volcanoes on Mars, but most of the recognized volcanoes match large basaltic shield volcanoes similar to Hawaii,” he explains.

“In this work we show that There are many other types of volcanoes in the ancient crust, such as lava domes, stratovolcanoes, calderas, and large ash shields, Not lava. Additionally, most scientists view Mars as a planet composed of basalt, which is low in silica, and has little crustal growth, but these volcanoes are high in silica, meaning they formed from a complex process of magma growth that were not known earlier,” he further said. ,

Investigation shows that there was a intense volcano on ancient mars, causing the crust to collapse into the mantle, where the rocks melted again, resulting in Magma with high silica content.

it must happen Tectonic processes, called vertical tectonics, occurred on the ancient Earth, But rocks from that period on Earth (Archean, more than 3 billion years ago) have been heavily modified by subsequent geological activity, so we cannot clearly see evidence of this process on the planet.

Therefore, exploring other planets like Mars, which have volcanism but not plate tectonics, may help. Uncover mysteries of early crustal recycling Both on the Red Planet and, by analogy, on the early Earth.

Professor Michalski concluded: “Mars contains important geological pieces that help us understand not only that planet, but Earth as well. “Mars volcanism is far more complex and diverse than previously thought.”

Professor Guochun Zhao said, “This is an important discovery because it shows that recycling of the Earth’s crust can occur not only in the plate tectonic regime dominated by horizontal motion, but also in the pre-plate tectonic regime dominated by vertical motion. It may also happen.” , Professor of Earth Sciences at HKU.

And they concluded: “This discovery may help Earth scientists resolve long-standing controversial questions about how and when felsic continents formed on our planet (Earth).”