Arkivism
A Volcano of Mud or Lava?
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A Volcano of Mud or Lava?

NASA / JPL · 2018-06-11 · photograph (digital archive)

From the collection of NASA Image and Video Library. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.

About this work

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows a hill with a central crater. Such features have been interpreted as both mud volcanoes (really a sedimentary structure) and as actual volcanoes (the erupting lava kind). They occur on the floor of Valles Marineris below a closed topographic contour that could have held a lake, and the compaction of wet sediments may have created mud volcanoes. The fracture pattern of the bright flow unit surrounding the hill resembles mud cracks.

NASA Image and Video Library’s own description
Credit lineA Volcano of Mud or Lava?. NASA/JPL, 2018-06-11. Public domain. ID: PIA22514.

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