An
old volcano sits near the edge of the Tharsis volcanic rise in Syria Planum on
Mars, as seen by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
A
blanket of dust still allows the volcano's shape to peek through at the upper
left, but makes it more difficult to study the volcanic processes that shaped
the terrain. The uniform nature of the dust mantle shows that it probably came
down from the atmosphere as dust or volcanic ash.
Scientists
are studying a similar, scalloped texture of the volcanic terrain in other MRO
images. The entire region surrounding the image area has signs of high volcanic
activity, with the upper canyon walls of Valles Marineris cutting through the
lava flow in many places.
— NASA/JPL/University of Arizona and SPACE.com
Staff
Credit: NASA/JPL/University
of Arizona
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