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Judi Lynn

(160,219 posts)
Tue May 19, 2020, 08:11 PM May 2020

Mars: Mud flows on Red Planet behave like 'boiling toothpaste'


By Jonathan Amos
BBC Science Correspondent
18 May 2020

An international team of researchers wondered how volcanoes that spew mud instead of molten rock might look on the Red Planet compared with their counterparts here on Earth.

In chamber experiments, simulated Martian mud flows were seen to behave a bit like boiling toothpaste.

Under certain conditions, the fluid even began to bounce.

The mucky gunge resembled a certain type of lava referred to as "pahoehoe", which is observed at Hawaii's famous Kīlauea volcano.

More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52713131
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Mars: Mud flows on Red Planet behave like 'boiling toothpaste' (Original Post) Judi Lynn May 2020 OP
Huge landforms on Mars may have been caused by mud, not lava Judi Lynn May 2020 #1
Ah yes, boiling toothpaste. That's a helpful comparison muriel_volestrangler May 2020 #2

Judi Lynn

(160,219 posts)
1. Huge landforms on Mars may have been caused by mud, not lava
Wed May 20, 2020, 12:55 AM
May 2020

Brittany A. Roston - May 19, 2020, 4:43 pm CDT



The Martian surface is covered with thousands of lava-like flows similar to the kind we see from volcanoes on Earth. Questions have remained over what these flows are made of — were they the result of lava or something else entirely? A new study out of Lancaster University has settled the question, pointing to massive floods that happened in Mars’ distant past.

According to the new study, these lava-like landforms on Mars were created by mud and the unique way it interacted with the Martian environment. Unlike on Earth, where the mud would spread out in large pools, the researchers found that it sort of ‘piled’ on itself and formed narrower, rounded channels that snaked out from the central pooling region.



The video above shows European researchers simulating this mud movement using a chamber that simulated the Earth’s environment and the Martian environment. Both low pressure and extremely cold temperatures were used to simulate Mars, resulting in free-flowing mud that produced a very different result compared to simulated mudflows on Earth.

According to the University, these landforms may have been created by massive floods — ones akin to the biggest recorded on Earth — that etched huge channels in the Martian surface. These floods would have caused the water to seep into the Martian subsurface. That water may have then emerged later on as mud from ruptures in the frozen crust; the mud would quickly freeze and form its own icy crust, producing the landforms.

More:
https://www.slashgear.com/huge-landforms-on-mars-may-have-been-caused-by-mud-not-lava-19621265/
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