Tag: Volcanic activity

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Mars

If you say water

then we say volcanism,

else Mars is too cold.

Recent observations of Mars have suggested the presence of liquid water beneath the ice at the South Pole, prompting researchers to ask how water could exist in liquid state under Mars’ environmental conditions.

Research by Soria and Bramson (2019) suggests that the most likely theory to explain the presence of water would be an underground source of heat such as the formation of a magma chamber in the area within the past few hundred thousand years. The researchers also suggest the reverse is true – if there isn’t such a heat source then it’s unlikely that the earlier suggestions of liquid water are correct.

Original reseach: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080985

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What lurks beneath?

What lurks beneath the

‘Mountains of Madness’? Maybe

it’s a mantle plume?

 

Antarctica has numerous subsurface lakes and rivers under its glaciers. Over 30 years ago it was hypothesised that there might be a mantle plume under West Antarctica which might be in part responsible for these subglacial water bodies.

Now there is increased evidence that such a mantle plume might actually exist: Seroussi et al (2017) wrote a three-dimensional ice flow model to understand how much geothermal heat would be needed to create the conditions observed at Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica. They then compared this model with observations collected by a Nasa satellite. Their results lend support to the theory that there may indeed be a mantle plume under Antarctica.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JB014423