Question Which volcano on the Tharsis region of Mars is the youngest?
Importance We believe that this question is important and interesting because we don t have any evidence of recent tectonic activity on Mars. Therefore, we were interested in which volcano is the youngest.
Hypotheses Our main hypotheses, the volcano on the Tharsis Region that is youngest is Pavonis Mons. Our alternative hypotheses, the volcano on the Tharsis Region that is youngest is Olympus Mons.
Definitions Volcano-A volcano is an opening, or rupture in a planet s surface or crust, which allows hot magma, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from below the surface. Crater-A basin resulting from the collision of an object with a planetary surface. (Made by meteorites) Citation: class notes
Themis image of volcano There is no image I.D. Olympus Mons is the largest volcano on Mars. It is about as large as the state of Arizona. It has four to six visible craters on the top. (not 46, 4 to 6) h#p://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/atlas/ olympus- mons.html
THEMIS IMAGE OF CRATER The image I.D. of this crater is V07993020 This crater was most likely created by a large meteorite It seems to be about as wide as the several craters on top of Olympus Mons.
VOLCANO FORMATION Volcanoes on Earth are created from a weak spot in the crust where molten material from the asthenosphere (mantle) comes to the surface. They are found on plate boundaries that are diverging or in subduction zones around the edges of the oceans. Volcanoes on Mars were formed in a similar fashion as Earth s. Except the one shown below and the rest of the volcanoes on the Tharsis region are a shield volcano and those are found in the middle of the plate. Olympus Mons (left) Mt. Saint Helens (right) Cita9on: class notes
Crater Formation Craters on Earth were formed my meteorite impacts. Craters on Mars were also created my meteorite impact. The reason why Mars has so many craters is because Mars doesn t have the same atmosphere as we do, so it isn t protected like Earth is. A crater on Mars (left) Barringer Crater (Right)
Science Research The Mariner 9 image of Olympus Mons is one of the first images to show that Mars has large volcanoes. THEMIS image of lava flows. Note the lobate shape of the edges. Volcanic activity, or volcanism, has played a significant role in the geologic evolution of Mars. Scientists have known since the Mariner 9 mission in 1972 that volcanic features cover large portions of the Martian surface. These features include extensive lava flows, vast volcanic plains, and the largest known volcanoes in the Solar System. Martian volcanic features range in age from Noachian (>3.7 billion years) to late Amazonian (< 500 million years), indicating that the planet has been volcanically active throughout its history and probably still is so today. When scientists analyzed the ages and chemical composition of several... Believe it or not, "recent" in geological terms can actually mean "180 million years young.... To the Tharsis region, home to Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in our... come from volcanic regions on Mars? their ages are as young as 180 million... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/volcanology_of_mars
Procedures 1. On JMARS (MSIP) software, type in following coordinates: 244E, 7.812. 2. Make a 7x14 data table with following labels: Image I.D. #, Latitude, Longitude, preserved craters, Modified craters, Destroyed craters, region. 3. Magnify onto volcanic feature that you will collect data on. 4. Click add new layer. 5. Go to MSIP in first category box. 6. Click on stamps. 7. Click on THEMIS. 8. Click set Lon/Lat to bounds of view. 9. Click okay (blue overlapped boxes should appear). 10. Click on a box (should turn yellow). 11. Right click and click on view THEMIS stamps. 12. Click on web browse (image I.D. #). 13. Find info table (located at the right- hand side). 14. Copy and paste image I.D. #, longitude, and latitude in to data table made earlier. 15. Count number of preserved, modified, and destroyed. 16. Record data in data table. 17. Repeat steps 2-16 for each volcano.
Spacecraft and Camera Used Spacecraft- the Odyssey Camera- THEMIS (thermal emission imaging system)
Geologic features We ll be focusing on geologic features such as volcanoes and craters. We will study this because our science question asks which volcano in the Tharsis region on Mars is the youngest. We ll use THEMIS images of craters on the volcanoes and see which volcano has the most and the least which will show the age by using the technique of super positioning.
Geographic regions We ll be focusing on the Tharsis region of Mars. The Tharsis region holds some of Mars largest volcanoes.
Olympus Mons THEMIS Images We used 59 THEMIS images to answer our science question. Ascraeus Mons Pavonis Mons Arsia Mons
Column names of data table Image I.D. # Latitude Longitude # of preserved craters # of modified craters # of destroyed craters Region ( all of them will state Tharsis since that is our main focus)
Measurements THE ONLY MEASURING WE LL BE DOING IS COUNTING THE NUMBER OF CRATERS ON EACH THEMIS IMAGE. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY OF RESEARCHING OUR QUESTION USING THEMIS IMAGES.
Ascraeus Mons Data Table
Image ID # La*tude Continued Longitude Preserved Craters Modified Craters Destroyed Craters Region V26937030 11.405907 253.76805 15 2 1 Tharsis V17777019 11.396997 254.34744 150 2 2 Tharsis V41486003 12.340611 254.45581 12 0 0 Tharsis V26051009 10.718286 254.1094 25 1 0 Tharsis V19312020 12.99556 254.96169 8 3 1 Tharsis V45268014 12.113349 256.8067 9 12 2 Tharsis V05546023 11.094465 256.26218 18 2 0 Tharsis
Image ID # La*tude Arsia Mons Data Table Longitude Preserved Craters Modified Craters Destroyed Craters Region V25728003-8.06292 238.41304 13 0 0 Tharsis V34262002-7.705117 237.16313 8 3 1 Tharsis V18078003-7.37774 237.73502 11 2 2 Tharsis V42361003-10.058286 237.57123 3 2 0 Tharsis V31904003-8.851785 240.11969 250 2 1 Tharsis V36396002-8.323527 241.38252 6 2 1 Tharsis V37856001-8.638034 242.84215 3 2 2 Tharsis V16755003-7.724043 242.19498 12 3 1 Tharsis
Continued Image ID # La*tude Longitude Preserved Craters Modified Craters Destroyed Craters Region V27138002-10.892619 240.79674 6 2 1 Tharsis V17379001-11.234431 241.20654 4 1 0 Tharsis V40801003-10.470305 241.3511 5 2 0 Tharsis V16755004-11.114345 241.73778 11 2 1 Tharsis V18290003-10.29354 241.80913 26 2 0 Tharsis V18265002-7.94486 243.30635 4 2 2 Tharsis V27088003-8.870664 243.56337 5 2 1 Tharsis
Image ID # Olympus Mons Data Table La*tude Longitude Preserved Craters Modified Craters Destroyed Craters Region V04461003 18 227 2 0 0 Tharsis V18377009 18 227 1 0 0 Tharsis V04848015 17.259539 226.58228 5 0 0 Tharsis V08543016 17.467382 227.64622 25 15 0 Tharsis V04461003 19.16305 227.01256 20 25 0 Tharsis V26052010 17.520014 226.20972 15 10 0 Tharsis V11351008 18.349787 225.8119 20 10 0 Tharsis V06321015 17.417927 226.98459 15 10 0 Tharsis V27225040 17.509874 225.91606 15 10 5 Tharsis V28086021 17.078766 226.27505 10 15 6 Tharsis V42036009 18.57207 228.8494 15 10 7 Tharsis V10702005 17.246044 227.17497 25 15 0 Tharsis V26052010 17.520014 226.20972 15 15 12 Tharsis V28086021 17.078766 226.27505 20 10 0 Tharsis
Image ID # Pavonis Mons data table La*tude Longitude Preserved Craters Modified Craters Destroye d Craters Region V12386009 1.830684 246.81087 7 15 8 Tharsis V17615024 1.606787 246.28279 12 12 7 Tharsis V11450010 1.196657 247.63454 5 10 7 Tharsis V15743004 0.326678 247.59819 15 6 8 Tharsis V27636035 0.724564 246.41652 17 10 20 Tharsis V14258014 1.266217 245.18036 4 0 2 Tharsis V15169007 0.722308 245.78075 31 20 10 Tharsis V01639008 0.425045 247.363 3 10 20 Tharsis V27062043 2.394495 246.32822 15 20 20 Tharsis V41324003 2.256716 246.54724 20 16 30 Tharsis V18551012 2.344226 245.58382 9 7 10 Tharsis V04660006 1.520217 245.91081 5 5 10 Tharsis V27063001-0.397498 245.95433 12 10 15 Tharsis V19412011-0.815804 248.52803 6 10 10 Tharsis
Crater Data Graph
Mola Map 90 60 30 L a t i t u d e 0-30 - 60-90 0 30 60 90 120 150 Longitude 180 210 240 270 300 330 360
Conclusion (part 1) Our scientific question was: which volcano on the Tharsis region of Mars is the youngest? Our main hypothesis was: the volcano on the Tharsis Region that is youngest is Pavonis Mons. Our alternative hypotheses was: the volcano on the Tharsis Region that is youngest is Olympus Mons
Conclusion (part 2) We believe that this question is important and interesting because we don t have any evidence of recent tectonic activity on Mars. Therefore, we were interested in how old the youngest volcano is. The evidence was how many craters were found on each volcano. We found a reasonable amount to support our hypothesis. The possible noise we could have made was that we could have miscounted the amount of craters on each volcano in the Tharsis region and this could lead to incorrect data tables.
Conclusion (part 3) Our hypothesis was proven to be wrong by the data that we collected. The volcano on the Tharsis Region that is youngest is Ascraeus Mons, was proved to be supported in our experiment. Ascraeus Mons ended up having 309 craters in all. The volcano that had the largest amount was actually the one that we thought that would be the youngest, Pavonis Mons. Pavonis Mons had 489 craters. We say the volcano that has the least amount of craters would be the youngest because it makes sense that the longer the volcano has been around, the more craters it would have.
References h#p://themis.asu.edu/ h#p://marsed.mars.asu.edu/msip- home h#p://www.geology.sdsu.edu/ how_volcanoes_work/mars.html h#p://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/4723/the- history- of- volcanism- on- mars
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