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Space/Science » in reply to Re: Mesas in Cydonia, Mars are table mountains.

Re: Mesas in Cydonia, Mars are table mountains.

I don't agree with you. These *specific* landforms are still commonly referred to as "table mountains". Tuyas is coming into more common usage. I don't agree that geologists would refer to any flat-topped mountain in their research work as a table mountain. Are you saying that a geologist referring to a mesa in the American southwest known to be due to wind erosion would call it a "table mountain" in her research work? I think it more likely she would call it just a mesa or a butte.
I'm aware that common informal english usage could refer to any flat-topped landform as a table mountain. I think there is in fact one mountain in North America that has that as its name, Table Mountain.

Also in the references I cited on the Mars landforms both authors refer to this *specific* type of landform due to subglacial eruptions as table mountains, as this was the term most commonly in use then:

Title: Volcano-ice interactions on Mars
Authors: Allen, C. C.
Journal: Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 84, Dec. 30, 1979, p. 8048-8059.
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?1979JGR....84.8048A [abstract]

Title: Table Mountains of Mars
Authors: Hodges, C. A.; Moore, H. J.
Journal: LUNAR AND PLANETARY SCIENCE IX, PP. 523-525.
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?1978LPI.....9..523H [full text]

Hematite is the most common spelling in use in (American) English:

The Lure of Hematite
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast28mar_1.htm

You are correct rhyolite is the correct spelling. I was thinking of references to that mineral from subice eruptions:

Subglacial rhyolite volcanoes
http://www.es.lancs.ac.uk/vgrg/People/hugh/rhy.html

MGS with its higher resolution TES spectrometer discovered minerals not previously observed with Viking, such as hematite, olivine, and andesitic volcanic rock. I expect THEMIS on Mars Odyssey will likewise observe minerals that were not observed by MGS.
That hematite has (apparently) already been observed at this location in Cydonia suggests there will likely be observed other minerals related to interactions with liquid water at this site as well.

Bob Clark

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