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Could a volcanic eruption be the key to unlocking the mysterious geological history of Mars?

Back in the 1960s, NASA's Mariner spacecraft discovered an extremely large and unusually soft rock formation. The makeup of the mass, now known as the Medusa Fossae formation, stumped researchers for decades because they were never able to determine how it got there.。

But now, new research seems to answer that question -- and maybe many others.。

More than 3 billion years ago, extreme volcanic eruptions on Mars dropped the huge deposit near the Martian equator, according to the new study published in the 。 Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.。

The Medusa Fossae is about one fifth the size of the United States.
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“This is a massive deposit, not only on a Martian scale, but also in terms of the solar system, because we do not know of any other deposit that is like this,” planetary scientist Lujendra Ojha, the lead author of the new study, said in a statement. 。

Ojha and his colleagues used gravity data from spacecraft orbiting Mars to measure the formation density. Through this, they were able to determine that the rock was unusually porous, allowing them to rule out other potential compositions like ice. 。

An isolated hill in the Medusae Fossae Formation. The effect of wind erosion on this hill is evident by its streamlined shape.Credit: High Resolution Stereo Camera/European Space Agency. 。

Eruptions of the magnitude suggested by the study would also have an enormous impact on the planet's climate as well. 。

A considerable amount of “climate-altering” gases like hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide accompany most volcanic eruptions and would have spit out enough water to cover the red planet in a global ocean, the study says.。

These findings paint a better picture of what habitability on Mars would look like, as well as the usefulness of gravity surveys. 
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