Ancient volcanoes formed Mars's Medussae Fossae region

By Laurel Kornfeld | Jun 19, 2018

Mars's Medussae Fossae Formation, a region near the Martian equator composed of eroding sediments, may have been formed by ancient volcanic eruptions more than three billion years ago.

Composed of soft rock, this area, which was imaged by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in infrared wavelengths, is a massive region composed of ridges, valleys, and mesas. It has been described by NASA scientists as "an enigmatic pile of eroding sediments."

First discovered during the 1960s by NASA's Mariner spacecraft, Medussae Fossae and its exotic terrain and soft rock puzzled scientists, who were unable to determine whether it was created by wind, ice, water, or volcanoes.

Now, using MRO data, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore measured the terrain's density and found its porous surface to have likely been formed by explosive volcanic deposits rather than by ice deposits.

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