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#           Sub-ice Volcanism on Earth and Mars      

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      By Astrogeology Science Center      October 22, 2018    

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**Sub-glacially erupted volcanoes form free-standing** flat-topped mesas, known as tuyas. Although there are some silicic edifices (e.g. Tuffen et al., 2002), most terrestrial sub-ice volcanoes are mafic and consist of horizontal layered basaltic lavas overlying friable flank deposits of steeply-dipping (angled) hyaloclastite breccias composed of variably-altered fine-grained palagonite material and basaltic clasts. When terrestrial volcanoes erupt underneath ice, they melt a vault and generate a meltwater lake within which a pillow mound and overlying tephra pile or tindar are constructed. Following emergence above the lake, lava-fed deltas are formed. If the volcano reaches the top of the meltwater lake or the vault is drained of water by a catastrophic flood event, then horizontally layered subaerial lava caprocks are deposited.

Many Martian mounds and ridges are compositionally and morphologically similar to many terrestrial basaltic tuyas and tindars. Like their terrestrial counterparts, the Martian features generally are associated with or lead to outflow channels. Some of the suggested Mars features, like the interior layered deposits in Valles Marineris, are much larger than terrestrial sub-ice volcanoes and approach the size of Hawaiian oceanic volcanoes (Chapman and Tanaka, 2001). Other Mars features, like ridges west of Elysium Mons (Chapman, 1994) and mesas near the poles (Garvin et al., 2000; Ghatan and Head, 2002; Ghatan et al., 2003) have sizes on the same scale as terrestrial sub-ice volcanoes.

Why do geologists study sub-ice volcanoes? On Earth, in habitated areas like Iceland, the catastrophic floods or jökulhlaups generated by these eruptions can be extremely hazardous. Study and monitoring of these volcanoes are intrinsic to civil warning systems. In remote areas like Antarctica, sub-ice eruptions can cause melting of the Antarctic Ice sheet, which on a large scale could potentially contribute to raising sea level and possibly have global climate effects. On Mars, there is active interest in the possibility of exobiologic life. Life generally requires water, so water-rich environments that are geothermally heated and nutrient rich, due to the presence of underground magma and local eruptions, would be ideal for biotic evolution. If the Martian features are sub-ice volcanoes perhaps these rocks house traces of extant life. In addition, the shapes and volumes of these Martian features can be used to indicate ancient ice thicknesses and possible outflow channel flood volumes.

There have been historic subglacial eruptions witnessed and studied by scientists, such as the recent Icelandic subglacial volcanic eruption at Grímsvötn eruption, 1996.

 

### Documents

###  

### References

                                - Allen, C. C., 1979a. Volcano-ice interactions on Mars, J. Geophys. Res. 84, 8048-8059.
                                - Allen, C. C., 1979b. Volcano-ice interactions on the Earth and Mars, NASA TM 81979, 164-326.
                                - Anderson, D. M., 1992. Glaciation in Elysium, MSATT Workshop Polar Regions of Mars, (abs.) Lunar Planet. Sci. Inst. Tech. Rept. 92-08(1).
                                - Baker, V. R., R. G. Strom, V. C. Gulick, J. S. Kargel, G. Komatsu, and V. S. Kale, 1991. Ancient oceans, ice sheets and the hydrological cycle on Mars, Nature, 352, 589-594.
                                - Bishop, J.L., P. Schiffman, and R. Southard, 2002. Geochemical and mineralogical analyses of palagonitic tuffs and altered rinds of pillow basalts in Iceland and application to Mars, in Smellie, J. L. & Chapman, M. G. (eds) Volcano--Ice Interactions on Earth and Mars. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 202, 371-392.
                                - Chapman, M. G., 1994. Evidence, age, and thickness of a frozen paleolake in Utopia Planitia, Mars, Icarus 109, 393-406.
                                - Chapman, M.G., 2002, Layered, massive, and thin sediments on Mars: Possible Late Noachian to Late Amazonian tephra? in Smellie, J. L. & Chapman, M. G. (eds) Volcano--Ice Interactions on Earth and Mars. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 202, 273-203.
                                - Chapman, M.G., 2003, Sub-ice volcanoes and ancient oceans/lakes: A Martian challenge, in Subglacial lakes' detection, outbursts mechanisms and consequences, Amir Moktari-Fard (Ed.), Special Paper on Subglacial Lake Detection, Global and Planetary Change 35, 185-198.
                                - Chapman, M. G. and J. L. Smellie, 2001. Putative large and small volcanic edifices in Valles Marineris, Mars and evidence of ground water/ice, (abs.) Eos Trans. AGU, Fall Meet. Suppl. P21C-11, F698.
                                - Chapman, M. G. and K. L. Tanaka, 2001. The interior deposits on Mars: sub-ice volcanoes?. J. Geophys. Res. 106, 10,087-10,100.
                                - Chapman, M.G. and K.L. Tanaka, 2002, Related magma-ice interactions: Possible origin for chasmata, chaos, and surface materials in Xanthe, Margaritifer, and Meridiani Terrae, Mars, Icarus v. 155, no. 2, 324-339.
                                - Chapman, M. G., C. C. Allen, M. T. Gudmundsson, V. C. Gulick, S. P. Jakobsson, B. K. Lucchitta, I. P.Skilling, and R. B. Waitt 2000. Volcanism and ice interactions on Earth and Mars. in Deep Oceans to Deep Space: Environmental Effects on Volcanic Eruptions, T.K.P. Gregg and J.R. Zimbelman (Eds.), Plenum Press, New York, p. 39-74.
                                - Chapman, M.G., M.T. Gudmundsson, A.J. Russell, T.M. Hare, 2003. Possible Juventae Chasma sub-ice volcanic eruptions and Maja Valles ice outburst floods, Mars: Implications of MGS crater densities, geomorphology, and topography. JGR-Planets 108, E10, 5113, 2(1)-2(20).
                                - Croft, S. K., 1990. Geologic map of the Hebes Chasma quadrangle, VM 500K 00077, (abs.) NASA TM 4210, 539-541.
                                - Fagents, S.A., Lanagan, P. and R. Greeley, 2002. Rootless cones on Mars: A consequence of lava-ground ice interactions, , in Smellie, J. L. & Chapman, M. G. (eds) Volcano--Ice Interactions on Earth and Mars. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 202, 295-317.
                                - Garvin, J. B., S. E. H. Sakimoto, J. J. Frawley, C. C. Schnetzler, and H. M. Wright, 2000. Topographic evidence for geologically recent near-polar volcanism on Mars. Icarus 145, 648-652.
                                - Ghatan, G. J., and J. W. Head III, 2002. Candidate subglacial volcanoes in the south polar region of Mars: Morphology, morphometry, and eruption conditions, J. Geophys. Res., 107 (E7), 10.1029/2001JE001519.
                                - Ghatan, G. J., J. W. Head III, and S. Pratt, 2003. Cavi Angusti, Mars: Characterization and assessment of possible formation mechanisms, J. Geophys. Res., 108 (E5), 5045, doi:10.1029/2002JE001972.
                                - Gulick, V. C. and V. R. Baker, 1989. Fluvial valleys and Martian paleoclimates, Nature 341, 514-516.
                                - Gulick, V. C. and V. R. Baker, 1990. Origin and evolution of valleys on Martian volcanoes, J. Geophys. Res. 95, 14325-14344.
                                - Gulick, V. C., D. Tyler, C.P. McKay, and R.M. Haberle, 1997. Episodic ocean-induced CO2 pulses on Mars: Implications for flucial valley formation, Icarus 130, 68-86.
                                - Head, J.W. and L. Wilson, 2002. Mars: A review and synthesis of general environments and geological settings of magma-H2O interactions, in Smellie, J. L. & Chapman, M. G. (eds) Volcano--Ice Interactions on Earth and Mars. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 202, 27-57.
                                - Hodges C. A., and H. J. Moore, 1978. Tablemountains of Mars, (abs.) Lunar Planet. Sci. Conf. 9th, 523-525.
                                - Hodges C. A., and H. J. Moore, 1979. The subglacial birth of Olympus Mons and its aureoles. J. Geophys. Res. 84, 8061-8074.
                                - Komatsu, G., G. G. Ori, P. Ciarcelluti, and Y. D. Litasov, 2004. Interior layered deposits of Valles Marineris, Mars: Analogous subice volcanism related to Baikal Rifting, Southern Siberia, Planetary and Space Science 52, 167-187.
                                - Lucchitta, B. K., Isbell, N. K. & Howington-Kraus, A. 1994. Topography of Valles Marineris: Implications for erosional and structural history. J. Geophys. Res. 99, 3783-3798.
                                - Nedell, S. S., Squyres, S. W. & Andersen D. W. 1987. Origin and evolution of the layered deposits in the Valles Marineris, Mars. Icarus 70, 409-441.
                                - Rice, J. W., Jr., and K. S. Edgett, 1997. Catastrophic flood sediments in Chryse Basin, Mars, and Quincy Basin, Washington: Application of sandar facies model, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 4185-4200.
                                - Weitz, C. M., 1999. A volcanic origin for the interior layered deposits in Hebes Chasma, Mars, (abs.) Lunar Planet. Sci. [CD_ROM], XXX, 1279.

Below are multimedia items associated with this project.

October 22, 2018

#### Volcanic Deltas and Possible Martian Analogs

link

Volcanic Deltas and Possible Martian Analogs.

Astrogeology Science Center

October 22, 2018

#### Volcanic Deltas and Possible Martian Analogs

link

#### Volcanic Deltas and Possible Martian Analogs

link

Volcanic Deltas and Possible Martian Analogs.

Astrogeology Science Center

October 22, 2018

#### Comparison between Elysium Fossae Ridges and Terrestrial Sub-ice Volca

link

Comparison between Elysium Fossae Ridges and Terrestrial Sub-ice Volcanoes.

Astrogeology Science Center

October 22, 2018

#### Comparison between Elysium Fossae Ridges and Terrestrial Sub-ice Volca

link

#### Comparison between Elysium Fossae Ridges and Terrestrial Sub-ice Volca

link

Comparison between Elysium Fossae Ridges and Terrestrial Sub-ice Volcanoes.

Astrogeology Science Center

October 22, 2018

#### Comparison between Interior Layered Deposits in Valles Marineris and..

link

Comparison between Interior Layered Deposits in Valles Marineris and Terrestrial Sub-ice Volcanoes.

Astrogeology Science Center

October 22, 2018

#### Comparison between Interior Layered Deposits in Valles Marineris and..

link

#### Comparison between Interior Layered Deposits in Valles Marineris and..

link

Comparison between Interior Layered Deposits in Valles Marineris and Terrestrial Sub-ice Volcanoes.

Astrogeology Science Center

**Sub-glacially erupted volcanoes form free-standing** flat-topped mesas, known as tuyas. Although there are some silicic edifices (e.g. Tuffen et al., 2002), most terrestrial sub-ice volcanoes are mafic and consist of horizontal layered basaltic lavas overlying friable flank deposits of steeply-dipping (angled) hyaloclastite breccias composed of variably-altered fine-grained palagonite material and basaltic clasts. When terrestrial volcanoes erupt underneath ice, they melt a vault and generate a meltwater lake within which a pillow mound and overlying tephra pile or tindar are constructed. Following emergence above the lake, lava-fed deltas are formed. If the volcano reaches the top of the meltwater lake or the vault is drained of water by a catastrophic flood event, then horizontally layered subaerial lava caprocks are deposited.

Many Martian mounds and ridges are compositionally and morphologically similar to many terrestrial basaltic tuyas and tindars. Like their terrestrial counterparts, the Martian features generally are associated with or lead to outflow channels. Some of the suggested Mars features, like the interior layered deposits in Valles Marineris, are much larger than terrestrial sub-ice volcanoes and approach the size of Hawaiian oceanic volcanoes (Chapman and Tanaka, 2001). Other Mars features, like ridges west of Elysium Mons (Chapman, 1994) and mesas near the poles (Garvin et al., 2000; Ghatan and Head, 2002; Ghatan et al., 2003) have sizes on the same scale as terrestrial sub-ice volcanoes.

Why do geologists study sub-ice volcanoes? On Earth, in habitated areas like Iceland, the catastrophic floods or jökulhlaups generated by these eruptions can be extremely hazardous. Study and monitoring of these volcanoes are intrinsic to civil warning systems. In remote areas like Antarctica, sub-ice eruptions can cause melting of the Antarctic Ice sheet, which on a large scale could potentially contribute to raising sea level and possibly have global climate effects. On Mars, there is active interest in the possibility of exobiologic life. Life generally requires water, so water-rich environments that are geothermally heated and nutrient rich, due to the presence of underground magma and local eruptions, would be ideal for biotic evolution. If the Martian features are sub-ice volcanoes perhaps these rocks house traces of extant life. In addition, the shapes and volumes of these Martian features can be used to indicate ancient ice thicknesses and possible outflow channel flood volumes.

There have been historic subglacial eruptions witnessed and studied by scientists, such as the recent Icelandic subglacial volcanic eruption at Grímsvötn eruption, 1996.

 

### Documents

###  

### References

                                - Allen, C. C., 1979a. Volcano-ice interactions on Mars, J. Geophys. Res. 84, 8048-8059.
                                - Allen, C. C., 1979b. Volcano-ice interactions on the Earth and Mars, NASA TM 81979, 164-326.
                                - Anderson, D. M., 1992. Glaciation in Elysium, MSATT Workshop Polar Regions of Mars, (abs.) Lunar Planet. Sci. Inst. Tech. Rept. 92-08(1).
                                - Baker, V. R., R. G. Strom, V. C. Gulick, J. S. Kargel, G. Komatsu, and V. S. Kale, 1991. Ancient oceans, ice sheets and the hydrological cycle on Mars, Nature, 352, 589-594.
                                - Bishop, J.L., P. Schiffman, and R. Southard, 2002. Geochemical and mineralogical analyses of palagonitic tuffs and altered rinds of pillow basalts in Iceland and application to Mars, in Smellie, J. L. & Chapman, M. G. (eds) Volcano--Ice Interactions on Earth and Mars. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 202, 371-392.
                                - Chapman, M. G., 1994. Evidence, age, and thickness of a frozen paleolake in Utopia Planitia, Mars, Icarus 109, 393-406.
                                - Chapman, M.G., 2002, Layered, massive, and thin sediments on Mars: Possible Late Noachian to Late Amazonian tephra? in Smellie, J. L. & Chapman, M. G. (eds) Volcano--Ice Interactions on Earth and Mars. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 202, 273-203.
                                - Chapman, M.G., 2003, Sub-ice volcanoes and ancient oceans/lakes: A Martian challenge, in Subglacial lakes' detection, outbursts mechanisms and consequences, Amir Moktari-Fard (Ed.), Special Paper on Subglacial Lake Detection, Global and Planetary Change 35, 185-198.
                                - Chapman, M. G. and J. L. Smellie, 2001. Putative large and small volcanic edifices in Valles Marineris, Mars and evidence of ground water/ice, (abs.) Eos Trans. AGU, Fall Meet. Suppl. P21C-11, F698.
                                - Chapman, M. G. and K. L. Tanaka, 2001. The interior deposits on Mars: sub-ice volcanoes?. J. Geophys. Res. 106, 10,087-10,100.
                                - Chapman, M.G. and K.L. Tanaka, 2002, Related magma-ice interactions: Possible origin for chasmata, chaos, and surface materials in Xanthe, Margaritifer, and Meridiani Terrae, Mars, Icarus v. 155, no. 2, 324-339.
                                - Chapman, M. G., C. C. Allen, M. T. Gudmundsson, V. C. Gulick, S. P. Jakobsson, B. K. Lucchitta, I. P.Skilling, and R. B. Waitt 2000. Volcanism and ice interactions on Earth and Mars. in Deep Oceans to Deep Space: Environmental Effects on Volcanic Eruptions, T.K.P. Gregg and J.R. Zimbelman (Eds.), Plenum Press, New York, p. 39-74.
                                - Chapman, M.G., M.T. Gudmundsson, A.J. Russell, T.M. Hare, 2003. Possible Juventae Chasma sub-ice volcanic eruptions and Maja Valles ice outburst floods, Mars: Implications of MGS crater densities, geomorphology, and topography. JGR-Planets 108, E10, 5113, 2(1)-2(20).
                                - Croft, S. K., 1990. Geologic map of the Hebes Chasma quadrangle, VM 500K 00077, (abs.) NASA TM 4210, 539-541.
                                - Fagents, S.A., Lanagan, P. and R. Greeley, 2002. Rootless cones on Mars: A consequence of lava-ground ice interactions, , in Smellie, J. L. & Chapman, M. G. (eds) Volcano--Ice Interactions on Earth and Mars. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 202, 295-317.
                                - Garvin, J. B., S. E. H. Sakimoto, J. J. Frawley, C. C. Schnetzler, and H. M. Wright, 2000. Topographic evidence for geologically recent near-polar volcanism on Mars. Icarus 145, 648-652.
                                - Ghatan, G. J., and J. W. Head III, 2002. Candidate subglacial volcanoes in the south polar region of Mars: Morphology, morphometry, and eruption conditions, J. Geophys. Res., 107 (E7), 10.1029/2001JE001519.
                                - Ghatan, G. J., J. W. Head III, and S. Pratt, 2003. Cavi Angusti, Mars: Characterization and assessment of possible formation mechanisms, J. Geophys. Res., 108 (E5), 5045, doi:10.1029/2002JE001972.
                                - Gulick, V. C. and V. R. Baker, 1989. Fluvial valleys and Martian paleoclimates, Nature 341, 514-516.
                                - Gulick, V. C. and V. R. Baker, 1990. Origin and evolution of valleys on Martian volcanoes, J. Geophys. Res. 95, 14325-14344.
                                - Gulick, V. C., D. Tyler, C.P. McKay, and R.M. Haberle, 1997. Episodic ocean-induced CO2 pulses on Mars: Implications for flucial valley formation, Icarus 130, 68-86.
                                - Head, J.W. and L. Wilson, 2002. Mars: A review and synthesis of general environments and geological settings of magma-H2O interactions, in Smellie, J. L. & Chapman, M. G. (eds) Volcano--Ice Interactions on Earth and Mars. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 202, 27-57.
                                - Hodges C. A., and H. J. Moore, 1978. Tablemountains of Mars, (abs.) Lunar Planet. Sci. Conf. 9th, 523-525.
                                - Hodges C. A., and H. J. Moore, 1979. The subglacial birth of Olympus Mons and its aureoles. J. Geophys. Res. 84, 8061-8074.
                                - Komatsu, G., G. G. Ori, P. Ciarcelluti, and Y. D. Litasov, 2004. Interior layered deposits of Valles Marineris, Mars: Analogous subice volcanism related to Baikal Rifting, Southern Siberia, Planetary and Space Science 52, 167-187.
                                - Lucchitta, B. K., Isbell, N. K. & Howington-Kraus, A. 1994. Topography of Valles Marineris: Implications for erosional and structural history. J. Geophys. Res. 99, 3783-3798.
                                - Nedell, S. S., Squyres, S. W. & Andersen D. W. 1987. Origin and evolution of the layered deposits in the Valles Marineris, Mars. Icarus 70, 409-441.
                                - Rice, J. W., Jr., and K. S. Edgett, 1997. Catastrophic flood sediments in Chryse Basin, Mars, and Quincy Basin, Washington: Application of sandar facies model, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 4185-4200.
                                - Weitz, C. M., 1999. A volcanic origin for the interior layered deposits in Hebes Chasma, Mars, (abs.) Lunar Planet. Sci. [CD_ROM], XXX, 1279.

Below are multimedia items associated with this project.

October 22, 2018

#### Volcanic Deltas and Possible Martian Analogs

link

Volcanic Deltas and Possible Martian Analogs.

Astrogeology Science Center

October 22, 2018

#### Volcanic Deltas and Possible Martian Analogs

link

#### Volcanic Deltas and Possible Martian Analogs

link

Volcanic Deltas and Possible Martian Analogs.

Astrogeology Science Center

October 22, 2018

#### Comparison between Elysium Fossae Ridges and Terrestrial Sub-ice Volca

link

Comparison between Elysium Fossae Ridges and Terrestrial Sub-ice Volcanoes.

Astrogeology Science Center

October 22, 2018

#### Comparison between Elysium Fossae Ridges and Terrestrial Sub-ice Volca

link

#### Comparison between Elysium Fossae Ridges and Terrestrial Sub-ice Volca

link

Comparison between Elysium Fossae Ridges and Terrestrial Sub-ice Volcanoes.

Astrogeology Science Center

October 22, 2018

#### Comparison between Interior Layered Deposits in Valles Marineris and..

link

Comparison between Interior Layered Deposits in Valles Marineris and Terrestrial Sub-ice Volcanoes.

Astrogeology Science Center

October 22, 2018

#### Comparison between Interior Layered Deposits in Valles Marineris and..

link

#### Comparison between Interior Layered Deposits in Valles Marineris and..

link

Comparison between Interior Layered Deposits in Valles Marineris and Terrestrial Sub-ice Volcanoes.

Astrogeology Science Center