Mars Glass Tied To Volcanic Eruptions In Geology Study

This three-dimensional image of a trough in the Nili Fossae region of Mars shows a type of minerals called phyllosilicates (in magenta and blue hues) concentrated on the slopes of mesas and along canyon walls. The abundance of phyllosilicates shows that water played a sizable role in changing the minerals of a variety of terrains in the planet's early history.

Scientists puzzling over some odd dark spots on Mars may finally have shone a light on the mystery.

In a new paper, published March 26 in the academic journal Geology, study authors Briony Horgan and James Bell of Arizona State University in Tempe found evidence that the Martian blemishes are likely to be made of sand-like particles of glass, similar in composition to obsidian.

For the authors, the glass is much more than decoration—its presence may hint at mineral-rich liquid water in Mars' past.

By analogy with glass-rich sand dunes found in Iceland, Horgan and Bell proposed that the Martian glass, concentrated in the region known as the northern lowlands, may have come about by an explosive volcanic event, which would have occurred when magma came in contact with ice or water.

"If these things were created by magma ice interactions, they would have caused huge outflows of hot, chemically rich liquid water, which would have created a habitable environment which is one of the big drivers for the Mars Program today," Horgan told Discovery News.

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Comments

[kinogod]

07:28 PM on 04/25/2012

There goes yeti

[bccmeteorites]

06:58 AM on 04/19/2012

Every time a NASA funded scientist spots an anomaly somewhere they yell water. If you quit looking for it you will find it by accident.

[Lahonda]

11:12 PM on 04/18/2012

Penguins!

[CarlIII]

09:35 PM on 04/18/2012

Mars will be terra formed eventually. It could be hundreds of years from now but it is inevitable. The technology required to accomplish this is yet to be developed but it will happen.

[MHB48]

04:10 PM on 04/17/2012

Weird dark spots on Mars huh? It could be worse I guess. They could be on Uranus.

[Al Schrader]

08:05 AM on 04/17/2012

To liepman: You can relax, aint how it works. Water doesn't just magically bubble-up from the inside of a planet, it comes from space, mostly in the form of ice. The core of our Earth is not molten, it's an ice cold magnetic iron asteroid. Mars is still forming same as the rest of the planets. When it has enough mass, it will capture and hold water plus a much richer atmosphere....Al-

[Sunwyn Ravenwood]

09:16 PM on 04/17/2012

Are you making a parody of science here or are you completely around the bend?

[cre8iveman]

10:38 AM on 04/19/2012

Junk science.

[mhwyman7]

04:46 AM on 04/17/2012

I've been saying for years that the Icelandians were from Mars!

[serranojacobkael]

01:40 AM on 04/17/2012

Mars- a potential colony for humanity in 1000 years. Terraforming. Look it up.

[MrAmericanMadeOnly]

10:52 PM on 04/16/2012

GLASS ! ! ? ?

( .. Huh .! .. )

Glass my Az z, and Uranus too ! .....

[WickedPickle]

04:19 AM on 04/17/2012

I beg you're partner.. Not myanus.

[parrotfish]

09:38 PM on 04/16/2012

or maybe the Aliens have a glass "forming" class as part of their Art Project on the second Tuesday of the month?

[liephman88]

07:57 PM on 04/16/2012

Ok Earth will some day suffer the same fate as Mars when it own molten core cools our magnetic field will weaken and our atmosphere and oceans will dissipate til there is little of either and all life here will end...... this is hundreds of million years from now mind you. My point is why are we so hot go to a planet that has already suffered the very fate we are destine for?

[edtheengineer]

08:47 PM on 04/16/2012

Because we would like to understand the details of this future event and be able to estimate the lead time we will have to find a new "home".

[sieiantn]

09:06 PM on 04/16/2012

Well, I see your point. Let's assume that our fate will be sealed in a couple of hundred million years. Heck if we're off by 50% that means that we could be anihilated in just 100 million years. Yep. we'd better be sure. Only having 100 million years (assuming we're off by 50% in our estimates) doesn't leave us much time to find a new home. If I'm here I want to be...to be....wait? Oh hell in a hundred million years, who cares (give or take 50 million..or even 1 million...or 100,000...or...)

[liephman88]

05:16 AM on 04/17/2012

The fact that I know what I know because I did not sleep through my junior high school science class would, I think demonstrate that we all ready understand and have some idea of the time line. At least some of us.

[dickn2000b]

09:44 PM on 04/16/2012

Because we, as a species, are driven by curiosity and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. And because we will increase our knowledge of Mars, of our solar system, and of our universe...And best of all, simply because we can! How long have you belonged to The Flat Earth Society?

[ThinkCreeps]

02:26 AM on 04/17/2012

Not a member of the martian sierra club?
Leave only wheelprints.

[liephman88]

05:13 AM on 04/17/2012

Dick is it?, how suiting a name, Well Rainman if you read my comment you would understand I am anything but a "Flat Earther" as you put it. Since you and many here can't comprehend my query I'll get out the crayons for you. If we plan on colonizing another planet would it not be wiser to find one we can live on not an already dead planet? And PS I'm not asking you but "QUESTIONING" the logic of researching if there was once life on Mars.

[websailor]

07:13 PM on 04/16/2012

Very interesting idea than there real could be life on Mars

[WickedPickle]

04:23 AM on 04/17/2012

I heard the Newt was contemplating vacationing there next summer. Ah! But even then, that still wouldn't prove life.

[cagog]

07:07 PM on 04/16/2012

Mars has many, many, many, many, many, many, many secrets.

[sieiantn]

09:07 PM on 04/16/2012

Shhhh! Let's keep 'em that way!

[angel64]

06:31 PM on 04/16/2012

Yea, sure. Glass sheets like that are the result of a nuclear bomb explosion, indication of war on mars.

[serranojacobkael]

01:39 AM on 04/17/2012

Mars is, after all, the god of war.

[Ioan Lightoller]

05:22 AM on 04/17/2012

Not necessarily. There are some large deposits of obsidian (volcanic glass) on earth.

[squiddypie8]

06:10 PM on 04/16/2012

I thought the planets were formed by huge globs of molten material expelled by the violent explosion of the sun, and then accreation occured on top of that. How then did the center of the earth, and possible other planets become molten inside by being fully formed through dust accretian only? I know there are some very intelligent individuals here who can explain this please.

[angel64]

06:33 PM on 04/16/2012

We live in a binary universe, we are energy and nothing but energy.

[squiddypie8]

07:03 PM on 04/16/2012

Slap me because you further confused the energy of my brain

[sieiantn]

09:11 PM on 04/16/2012

Oh heck that's an easy answer!! Why didn't you know that "Hell" is "down there"! Must be that "Devil" stoking his fires! Either that or the "Sun' got "swallowed" by a Dragon streaking across the sky that became Earth...One or the other ..I'm sure of it!! :>)

[squiddypie8]

09:19 PM on 04/16/2012

Ooooh magic.......doesnt stoke my fire actually.

[Mrchristal]

04:31 AM on 04/17/2012

Wait..what about the giant star goats??