Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to How about considering subaqueous eruption?

Not in a million years!

Subaqueous eruptions lead to a range of obvious macro-and micro-scale features that are not generally observed on Mars:-

1) Pillow Basalts - blobs and tubes of lava, rather than sheets as in subaerial eruptions
2) Hyaloclastics - vast amounts of shattered volcanic glass
3) Very fine crystal size
4) Tuya geometry of volcanoes (steep-sided mounds with much flatter tops representing the submarine and subaerial components)

With the exception of some work by Mary Chapman showing Tuya-like features within the enclosed rifts of Vallis Marineris, none of these diagnostic signs are found on Mars or seen in Mars meteorites.

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