Looking into 2nd highest volcano on Mars that is taller than Mount … – India Today

By India Today Science Desk: Mars is known not just for its characteristic reddish glow, but also for its vicious volcanoes that were once active in the planet's ancient past. Europe's Mars Express has now peered on one such structure that is taller than Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth.

The probe operated above Mars by the European Space Agency (ESA) has imaged the pitted, fissured flank of the planets second-tallest volcano, named Ascraeus Mons, using its High-Resolution Stereo Camera.This image from ESAs Mars Express shows the southern flanks of Ascraeus Mons, the second-tallest volcano on Mars. (Photo: ESA)

Ascraeus Mons stands tall with a towering height of 18 kilometers, but its slopes are gentle, with an average incline of seven degrees. It is the northernmost and tallest of three prominent volcanoes found in the Tharsis region of Mars, which is a volcanic plateau in the western hemisphere of the Red Planet.

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While it is 18 kilometers in height, the volcano has a huge base diameter of 480 kilometers, which gives it a footprint roughly the size of Romania on Earth. Ascraeus is only surpassed by Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano not only on Mars but in the entire Solar System.Several key features are labelled across the frame, including lava flows, chains of craters, channel-like rilles seen on Mars. (Photo: ESA)

The image beamed back by the Mars Express shows the lower southern flank of the volcano and astronomers noticed a dramatic difference in elevation from one side to the other, with the left side of the frame sitting about 10 km lower than the right side.

The probe observed the chasms of the volcano that encompasses an enormous patch of collapsed terrain over 70 km across. The structures reveal lava flows and tubes, chains of craters, channel-like rilles, and large fissures spanning tens of km in length. "These features knit together to form a scene resembling trails of ink dispersing artfully in water," ESA said in a statement.This image shows the region surrounding the martian volcanoes Ascraeus Mons, Pavonis Mons and Arsia Mons. (Photo: ESA)

The spacecraft also observed numerous wrinkled lava flows chains of pit craters, features where strings of circular or near-circular depressions have combined and coalesced to form troughs. Geologists believe that these chains and troughs form where hidden voids lie below the surface, causing the ground to become unstable and collapse a bit like a sinkhole.

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"It is still unclear how these structures formed, but their creation may involve flows of lava, ash, or water or a combination of the three," ESA added.

The Mars Express has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2003, imaging the surface, mapping minerals, identifying the composition and circulation of the tenuous atmosphere, and probing beneath Red Planet's crust.

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