Space & Astronomy
Dark regions on Mars made of glass
By
T.K. RandallApril 16, 2012 ·
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 |
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