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Space & Astronomy

Dark regions on Mars made of glass

By T.K. Randall
April 16, 2012 · Comment icon 11 comments

Image Credit: NASA
10 million square kilometres of the Martian surface is believed to comprise of volcanic glass.
Studies of images from the Mars Express orbiter have helped Briony Horgan and Jim Bell of Arizona State University determine the true nature of the mysterious dark regions of the planet's surface - sand-sized grains of glass coated with silica-rich "rinds". It is thought that the material may have been produced by volcanoes interacting with snow and ice.
The dark regions make up more than 10 million square kilometres of the Martian northern lowlands, but their composition wasn't clear. Past spectral measurements indicated that they are unlike dark regions found elsewhere on the Red Planet, which consist mainly of basalt.


Source: New Scientist | Comments (11)




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Comment icon #2 Posted by OverSword 13 years ago
From the article: On Earth, such rinds coat volcanic glass weathered by water. How the glassy grains formed on Mars is unknown, but Horgan says magma from Martian volcanoes interacting with water ice and snow is a possibility. That would make these regions (pictured right) potential hotspots for alien life because they would have held chemical-rich water - a key ingredient for life.\ More disclosure.
Comment icon #3 Posted by spud the mackem 13 years ago
Was it volcano's or did they have a nuke war and were turned into glass ?...
Comment icon #4 Posted by mxcx 13 years ago
Mars was supposedly inhabited in ancient times, and 2/3 of the atmosphere destroyed. Supposedly. I would suspect something nuclear because that's the only temperature sand can turn to glass, other than lightning or meteor, but those two would only create small areas of glass. In Libya there is tens of kilometers of fields of shards and plates of glass. "Some geologists associate the glass not with impact melt ejecta, but with radiative melting from meteoric large aerial bursts." - Wiki. In my opinion there is no way a meteor could be responsible, glass on a massive flat surface, and lightning?... [More]
Comment icon #5 Posted by willowdreams 13 years ago
Mars was supposedly inhabited in ancient times, and 2/3 of the atmosphere destroyed. Supposedly. I would suspect something nuclear because that's the only temperature sand can turn to glass, other than lightning or meteor, but those two would only create small areas of glass. In Libya there is tens of kilometers of fields of shards and plates of glass. "Some geologists associate the glass not with impact melt ejecta, but with radiative melting from meteoric large aerial bursts." - Wiki. In my opinion there is no way a meteor could be responsible, glass on a massive flat surface, and lightning?... [More]
Comment icon #6 Posted by DKO 13 years ago
Im trying to find the article now but I remember reading that there was evidence of a natural nuclear explosion millions of years ago.
Comment icon #7 Posted by DKO 13 years ago
Heres the article: Natural nuclear explosion on mars And a UM thread on it: Thread
Comment icon #8 Posted by 27vet 13 years ago
Send a manned mission to Mars and a lot of mysteries will be cleared up.
Comment icon #9 Posted by karmakazi 13 years ago
Mars was supposedly inhabited in ancient times, and 2/3 of the atmosphere destroyed. Supposedly. I would suspect something nuclear because that's the only temperature sand can turn to glass, other than lightning or meteor, but those two would only create small areas of glass. In Libya there is tens of kilometers of fields of shards and plates of glass. "Some geologists associate the glass not with impact melt ejecta, but with radiative melting from meteoric large aerial bursts." - Wiki. In my opinion there is no way a meteor could be responsible, glass on a massive flat surface, and lightning?... [More]
Comment icon #10 Posted by space11498 13 years ago
It is just the glass formed due to volcanoes or it is volcanic glass.There can't be any other source.
Comment icon #11 Posted by OverSword 13 years ago
Send a manned mission to Mars and a lot of mysteries will be cleared up. Probably to everyone except the tax payers who paid for the mission.


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