[Zuljin]

Originally posted by Nico


I don't think so. Since Mars is a dead planet w/o tectonic activities or anything, I'd assume the volcanoes are dead too, no?
I don't know, heh, I'm just asking.

if the planet was "dead", and had no core activity what-so-ever.
Then I believe the whole planet would be one giant chunk of ice

[Xelion]

Enough Said ..

Copyright Source: The West Australian "Educational Purposes Only"

[Nico]

Originally posted by Zuljin


if the planet was "dead", and had no core activity what-so-ever.
Then I believe the whole planet would be one giant chunk of ice

Well no, it has atmosphere. Atmosphere traps sunrays and stuff.

[StratComm]

There are a lot of objects in the solar system that are geologically dead yet still are rocky.  Take any asteroid found within Jupiter's orbit, for example.  Or Mercury.  Or the larger moons of Jupiter or Saturn.  To be a chunk of ice the body must not only be geologically dead but also pretty distant from the sun.

[Liberator]

No, NASA'a budget has been relatively stable at 15 billon for over a decade.  That leaves two options:

1.  The Director is a Beaurecrat who doesn't know or doesn't care that Hubble is the only tool that can do certain jobs.

or(this one is kind of out there)

2.  The Government is concealing the fact that we are in contact with aliens and there are so many up there that it is becoming undeniable.

I'm with #1 in this case although #2 has had some convincing arguments put forward in recent months.

[Lightspeed]

Originally posted by Nico


I don't think so. Since Mars is a dead planet w/o tectonic activities or anything, I'd assume the volcanoes are dead too, no?
I don't know, heh, I'm just asking.

The vulcanoes on mars are a) partially still active and b) the biggest to be found in our solar system.

The planet's definately not dead. But you could say its climate is too chaotic to maintain/develop any form of life. The Mars' moons are not enough to stabilize the planet, so the rotational axis wobbles around, leading to desertification (go figure) as well as drastic climate shifts in short time periods.

[aldo_14]

There's a volcano on Mars about the sive of Everest, IIRC.

Incidentally, the mars express probe has found evidence of frozen water on the (south?) pole of Mars - frozen water, frozen with dirt and frozen with CO2.

[diamondgeezer]

DG's big list o' Mars facts™:

Mars is ~ 1/2 the size of Earth

Mars has a the largest mountains (ie. volcanoes) in the solar system

Olympus Mons is 21 miles high (IIRC), which fairly pisses over Everest

Mars has no current geological activty to speak of, save wind errosion (which no-one really gives a **** about cos it's boring)

Mars has no magnetic field to speak of

The previous three facts indicate that Mars has a massively thick crust with virtually no dynamic activity inside the planet



Here endeth the lesson. You have been educated

[Lightspeed]

the fact that there's frozen H2O on the poles has been known quite a while.

One of the biggest volcano on mars has a width of 500 kilometres, with a height of 25 kilometres.

Temperature can get to 25°C, with a temperature minimum of -133°C, one of Mars' years takes 687 earth days. What's really amazing is that the time a day takes is nearly exactly the same as on Earth.

While an earth day takes 24 hours, a Mars day has 24,6 hours.

Atmosphere composition:

95% CO2
2.7% Nitrogen
1.6% Argon
0.13% Oxygen

[Liberator]

Originally posted by diamondgeezer
DG's big list o' Mars facts™:

Mars is ~ 1/2 the size of Earth

Mars has a the largest mountains (ie. volcanoes) in the solar system

Olympus Mons is 21 miles high (IIRC), which fairly pisses over Everest

Mars has no current geological activty to speak of, save wind errosion (which no-one really gives a **** about cos it's boring)

Mars has no magnetic field to speak of

The previous three facts indicate that Mars has a massively thick crust with virtually no dynamic activity inside the planet



Here endeth the lesson. You have been educated

All of which can be explained by the fact that it has no large moons to affect it gravitationally.

[Ghostavo]

[Grey Wolf]

You can have volcanic activity without a moon. Io, for example, is a moon itself with massive volcanic activity. A magnetic field for the moon, however, is under debate.

[Lightspeed]

Io has volcanic activity due to the heavy gravity of the surrounding celestial bodies.

[diamondgeezer]

Damn straight, Lighty. I spies poeple posting without knowing what they're talking about. Lunar gravity isn't the only cause of volcanism and tectonic activity

[Ghostavo]

Last I heard Mars had 2 moons!! If their joint mass can't create enough gravity force, nothing will.

[redsniper]

maybe the 2 cancel each other out, plus they're much smaller than our moon

[karajorma]

Deimos and Phobos are tiny.  Phobos is 27km across. Deimos is 16km in diameter. The moon is 3,476km in diameter. Quite a difference wouldn't you say?

[Lightspeed]

Originally posted by Ghostavo
Last I heard Mars had 2 moons!! If their joint mass can't create enough gravity force, nothing will.

They're called Phobos and Deimos, two ridiculously little pieces of rock.

They're *nowhere* near as big enough to stablize the rotational axis, let alone create any magnetic fields or volcanism

*edit: kara beat me to it.

Still, some of the larger volcanoes on mars are still active.

[redsniper]

soooooo... Now we need to discover a new star and name it Vasuda.

[Grey Wolf]

Originally posted by Lightspeed
Io has volcanic activity due to the heavy gravity of the surrounding celestial bodies.

That's what I get for a quick web search. You're right, Lightspeed, it is tidal stresses from Jupiter that cause Io's volcanic activity.

However, IIRC, heat from decaying radioactive isotopes play a role in heating the cores of planet....