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Mars might not be so dead after all. Researchers find an active interior responsible for surface markings.

Though it has been ceaselessly swinging around Mars for the past few years, it seems that the European Space Agency’s Mars Express satellite hasn’t garnered as much fame as NASA’s intrepid Spirit and Opportunity rovers. Though less charismatic, discoveries made by Mars Express have been extremely valuable. As of 2006 its OMEGA instrument helped create maps and identify minerals across 90% of the Martian surface, and in 2007 sent back extensive data on the polar ice cap at the planet’s south pole.

Now surface data collected by the craft’s High Resolution Stereo Camera has been analyzed to help understand how the seemingly chaotic surface of the planet was formed. Somewhat surprisingly, given the recent history of Martian observations, a team of scientists at Freie Universität Berlin announced their findings that many of the prominent aesthetics of the red planet were probably produced by a mixture of violent volcanic activity and flash flooding.

The researchers used a straightforward method of observing the amount of cratering on the surface of prominent geological sites to determine the age of the event. Though some scientists disagree with chronology using this method, data collected over the last seven years indicates that the rate of surface cratering is on track with the group’s findings.

There have been five significant upheavals in the past 3.5 billion years, according to the group’s study. The most recent approximately 100 million years ago. They postulate that the geological activity is from the still warm interior of the planet attempting to achieve something on the order of Earth’s plate tectonics.

We should be learning more and more about the Martian surface and interior as missions like Mars Express, NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor and future craft are sent off. With any luck, the information gleaned from the data from these missions will further and support plans for future manned missions to the planet.

dailytech.com