{"id":21037,"date":"2022-12-05T17:04:59","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T17:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/05\/nasas-thermal-mole-reveals-active-mantle-plume-on-mars-the-register\/"},"modified":"2022-12-05T17:04:59","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T17:04:59","slug":"nasas-thermal-mole-reveals-active-mantle-plume-on-mars-the-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/12\/05\/nasas-thermal-mole-reveals-active-mantle-plume-on-mars-the-register\/","title":{"rendered":"Nasa’s thermal mole reveals active mantle plume on Mars \u2022 The Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Researchers have discovered a driver for volcanic activity on Mars, a red planet once thought to have no active seismic geology.<\/p>\n

Using data from NASA\u2019s InSight rover, which first landed on the fourth planet from the Sun in 2018, planetary scientists from the University of Arizona\u2019s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory have deduced an active mantle plume, the same type of giant pillar of hot molten rock which drives volcanic activity and earthquakes on Earth by pushing hot magma from the mantle to nearer the surface crust.<\/p>\n

\"NASA<\/a><\/p>\n

NASA InSight Mole<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Their data model suggests the plume has a diameter of about 4,000km and lies below the northern plains of Mars. Located in the Elysium Planitia region, the plume could explain the area’s volcanic and seismic activity, the research paper<\/a> published today in Nature Astronomy said.<\/p>\n

Although there is plenty of evidence of volcanic activity<\/a> on the Martian surface, including the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons, most of this activity took place during a 500-million-year period about 4 billion years ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But in 2015, NASA set in place plans to build a probe<\/a> which could reveal more about geological activity on Earth’s proximal sidekick. In 2018, the resulting $810 million InSight lander touched down<\/a>, with an instrument called HP3, a thermal \u201cmole\u201d that \u201cwill hammer five meters into the Martian subsurface \u2026 to learn how much heat is coming from Mars’ interior and reveal the planet’s thermal history.\u201d<\/p>\n

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