Other
Scientific paper
Jan 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001mers.work...22f&link_type=abstract
First Landing Site Workshop for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers, p. 22
Other
Microorganisms, Volcanoes, Submarines, Lithology, Mars Surface, Lava, Igneous Rocks, Planetary Geology, Glass, Water
Scientific paper
Subaqueous volcanic eruptions produce characteristic landforms and lava flow morphologies that are distinct from subaerial eruptions. Eruptions from fissures on the sea floor produce hummocks rather than flat lava flows. Hummocky lava flows typically have dimensions of 500 meters wide, 5000 meters long, and 50 meters high. The hummocks are made of piles of bulbous pillows that are about 1 meter in diameter. Because of the high specific heat of water and the large temperature difference between magma and liquid water (about 1100 C) the exteriors of lava flows are quenched to glass. Cooling of lava flows in air does not have this effect, The quenched volcanic glass in aqueous environments contains microorganisms that dissolve the glass and leave secondary minerals such as clay, iron oxides, and sulfides in the voids. The microbial excavation of the glass produces a wide variety shapes and sizes. These microbially produced excavations may be 100 micrometers long by 3 micrometer diameter tubes, starbursts of radiating tubes, branching 1 micrometer diameter tubes, or other shapes. These tubes and excavations are distinctive, they are associated with bacteria, and they are preserved along with the glass. In surveys of volcanic glass from subaqueous lava flows we have found this evidence of microbial activity in rocks at ocean subbottom depths of a few meters to 1500 meters. These rocks range in age from about 1 million years to 170 millions years. Where submarine volcanic rocks have been uplifted to dry land, the glass may also preserve microbial patterns of glass alteration. Comparisons of terrestrial and Martian landforms could reveal the locations of subaqueous volcanic activity on Mars. Given the similarity of compositions of igneous rocks on the two planets, subaqueous eruptions on Mars will have quenched glass exteriors. Evidence of microbial colonization of the glass will be preserved as long as the glass is preserved. Also, the microbial activity that produces the characteristic microbial tubes appears to be extremely slow and is unlikely to occur after the rocks are collected. Hummocky regions built from successive eruptions of lavas into water could produce unequivocal evidence of past life on Mars.
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