Major breakthrough! Giant volcano found on Mars with glacier ice beneath it. What could it mean for humans?

The red planet continues to surprise! In a recent study, scientists revealed that they discovered a giant volcano on Mars along with a possible sheet of buried glacier ice in the eastern part of the planet’s Tharsis volcanic area near its equator.

The groundbreaking announcement was made at the 55th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held in The Woodlands, Texas.

Since the launch of Mariner 9 in 1971, spacecraft circling Mars have taken many pictures. But a huge volcano there, which has been worn down a lot, wasn't easy to see clearly. It was right there for decades, sitting between two famous places on Mars: the jumbled-up Noctis Labyrinthus and the huge canyons of Valles Marineris.

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Giant volcano found on Mars was hiding in plain sight

The giant volcano measures +9,022 metres in elevation and spans 450 kilometres in width. The volcano is provisionally named “Noctis Volcano” and awaits a proper official name. The volcanic structure is situated at 7° 35' S, 93° 55' W on the surface of the red planet.

The gigantic size of the volcano and its complex history of modification indicate that it has been active for a very long time. In the southeastern part of the volcano, scientists also found a recent volcanic deposit, under which glacier ice was also present.

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This combined discovery of a giant volcano and possible glacier ice is quite significant, as it opens up a new realm for researchers and scientists to study Mars, which could possibly be a new place of life and space exploration in the future.

"We were examining the geology of an area where we had found the remains of a glacier last year when we realized we were inside a huge and deeply eroded volcano," said Dr Pascal Lee, a planetary scientist with the SETI Institute and the Mars Institute based at NASA Ames Research Center, and the lead author of the study.

Scientists also found a caldera remnant near the centre of the volcanic structure, which further emboldens the fact that this volcano has been active in recent years. Caldera remnants are typically the remains of a collapsed volcanic crater that was once a hot lava lake.

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In addition to the volcano, the study also reports the discovery of a large, 5000-kilometre area of volcanic deposits within its perimeter.

This "blistered terrain" is interpreted to be a field of "rootless cones",mounds produced by explosive steam venting or steam swelling when a thin blanket of hot volcanic materials comes to rest on top of a water or ice-rich surface.

Study experts noticed that the Noctis Volcano has a long history of modification which is the result of a combination of phenomena likefracturing, thermal erosion, and glacial erosion. Researchers interpret the volcano to be a vast shield made of layered accumulations of pyroclastic materials, lavas, and ice, the latter resulting from repeated buildups of snow and glaciers on its flanks through time.

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What does this discovery mean for humans?

As mysteries surrounding the Noctis volcano continue to thrill scientists, the site is already emerging as an exciting new location to study Mars' geologic evolution, search for life, and plan future robotic and human exploration.

The possible presence of glacier ice at shallow depths near the equator means that humans could potentially explore a less frigid part of the planet while still being able to extract water for hydration and manufacturing rocket fuel (by breaking down H2O into hydrogen and oxygen).

(With inputs from agencies)