Name: Matthew W.
ProgramYear: 2006
Submit Date: May 28, 2006
Review Date: May 30, 2006

The Geology of Mars Once human explorers reach the red planet, they will be greeted with a view of a landscape that is not that different from the one they left. Mars has many aspects that would remind the first explorers of Earth. Mars has mountains, valleys, rivers, seas, and ice caps. But Mars has many things that Earth doesn’t have like craters and colossal volcanoes. The geology of Mars can be considered the same as Earth, but in reality the landscape is totally different. Though Mars is about half the size of Earth, it has enormous volcanoes that go unmatched here on Earth. Volcanoes are produced by plate tectonics, but since Mars has no current plate movements, which means that Martian volcanoes are very old. Also, due the different type of weathering on Mars, there is hardly any erosion of the volcanoes. To produce such huge volcanoes, the Martian mantel must have been very active. There must have been one volcano after another, and each succeeding volcano built up on the previous volcanoes debries. Therefore, after many years of this building up, the volcanoes came to be enormous. Most of the volcanoes on Mars are either found in the Tharsis Region or the Elysium Plains. The Tharsis Region is an area of Mars that was once bursting with volcanic activity. This area has four major volcanoes including Olympus Mons, Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons, and Arisa Mons. In addition to these, the Tharsis Region has about four other minor volcanoes. The most famous of all these volcanoes is Olympus Mons. It reaches 24 kilometer high and has a base of 500 kilometers in diameter. Around the base of this and other volcanoes, tremendous lava flows can be seen. The Elysium Plains house some of the oldest volcanoes on the planet. The two major volcanoes in this region are Elysium Mons and Hecates Tholus. They are about the same size as the volcanoes on Earth. The red planet also has many valleys that lace the planet. The largest one is Valles Marineris and it is 3,000 km long and in some points 8 km deep. On each side of this valley or canyon there are intricate, dried up, river systems. On the east side of Valles Marineris there is a region called Noctus Labyrenthus which contains a large portion of the planet's river formations. There is also evidence that there might have been an ocean or sea on Mars. There are outlines of ancient shorelines, flood plains, island type land formations, and tributary like channels. Some scientists speculate that the ocean or sea that once flowed on Mars may have frozen when the climate changed. Then the ice was covered with dust, debries, or lava. Many scientists also hypothesis that there might be liquid or frozen water under the surface of Mars, which might harbor microscopic life. The geology on Mars can be divided into two sections concerning craters, into the north and the south. The north side of Mars is less cratered while the south side is heavily cratered. The north side, it is speculated, has fewer craters because there are more volcanoes to level out the land around the eruption, therefore erasing the evidence of an impact crater. The south side, then, is less populated with volcanoes and therefore has many more visible craters. One of the biggest impact basins on Mars is the Hellas Planitia. This crater is nearly nine kilometers deep and 2,100 kilometers across. The basin is surrounded by a ring of material that rises about two kilometers above the surrounding land and stretches out to 4,000 kilometers from the basin center. Some scientists think that the asteroid that produced this crater may have changed the ecosystem of Mars substantially. Others compare it to the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs on Earth. Like Earth, Mars has polar ice caps. These ice caps are located at the poles of Mars. The south ice cap is mostly frozen carbon dioxide, dust, and some water ice. At it smallest faze, the south ice cap is about 400 km in diameter. The cap looks reddish in color because of the dust that has been absorbed into the ice. The north ice cap is mostly water ice and carbon dioxide. Both poles have small permanent caps and seasonal caps that grow very large then shrink. Due to the fine powder of red dust on Mars, the thin atmosphere, and the occasional wind, Mars receives many dust storms over the course of a year. These dust storms form when there is a change in temperature between the different air fronts. Sometimes these dust storms can go global and cover the whole planet for weeks at a time. Mars has a very different landscape then Earth does, but there are many things that are alike. There are mountains, valleys, rivers, seas. Also there are numerous volcanoes and craters that give Mars that out-worldly look. The first explorers to Mars may have a tough time in adjusting to the difference, but in the end the future inhabitants on Mars will call the planet home. Sources: http://www.solarviews.com/cap/mgs/mgstopo5.htm http://library.thinkquest.org/11967/vistas.html The Atmosphere of Mars The Geology of Mars: Riverbeds and Past Oceans? The Geology of Mars: Ice Caps

Name: Matthew W.
ProgramYear: 2006
Submit Date: May 30, 2006
Review Date: May 30, 2006