• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • 1
    CommentGo Back
Download
 
Ž .
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 117 2000 437–447www.elsevier.com
r
locate
r
pepi
The change of eruption styles of Martian volcanoes and estimatesof the water content of the Martian mantle
Tomonori Kusanagi
)
, Takafumi Matsui
 Department of Earth and Planetary Physics, Uni
Õ
ersity of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
Received 3 December 1998; accepted 10 May 1999
Abstract
Estimated water contents in the Martian mantle range from 36 ppm to more than 1%. These values are based on thechemical analyses such as hydrous minerals in SNC meteorites and formation models of Mars. This study evaluates thewater content of the Martian mantle using the change with time of volcanic eruption style on Mars as an observationalconstraint. Styles of volcanic activity depend on the volatile content of the magma and the atmospheric pressure. Because alow atmospheric pressure leads to a more explosive volcanic eruption, it has been believed that the volcanism on the currentMartian environment would be very explosive. Our calculations, however, show that, under the current Martian atmosphericconditions, erupted magma cannot entrain the ambient air effectively, so the decrease in temperature of the magma duringascent is small. Consequently, the erupted magma may form a lava-like deposit when it falls back on the ground. Thiseffusive-like style of eruption is a counterpart of clastogenic lava on Mars. On the other hand, numerical calculations under athick CO atmosphere, which may correspond to an ancient Martian atmosphere, reveal a rather explosive eruption style.
2
Geological features of earlier stages of Martian history in the Noachian and Hesperian eras suggest that the volcaniceruptions on Mars were explosive then. Effusive eruptions, however, became dominant in more recent times. It has beenwidely accepted that Mars experienced a major climate change. In addition, the release factor of volatiles on Mars has beensuggested to be as small as 0.017–0.112. This may imply that the volatile content has been almost constant throughoutMartian history. Consequently, we assume that this change in eruption style was caused by the change in atmosphericpressure. For a given water content of magma, a major climatic change may lead to a transition in eruption style. If we knowthe atmospheric pressure at the time of this transition, we can calculate the possible range of the volatile content of themantle using our numerical simulations. If the atmospheric pressure on Mars around late Hesperian era is about 1 bar, theestimated values for a typical Martian magma are 0.05–0.25 wt.%, which is within the range of the water content of typicalterrestrial basaltic magmas.
q
2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Eruption styles; Martian volcanoes; Martian mantle
)
Corresponding author. e-mail: kusanagi@geoph.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp0031-9201
r
00
r
$ - see front matter
q
2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Ž .
PII: S0031-9201 99 00112-0
 
( )T. Kusanagi, T. Matsui
r
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 117 2000 437–447 
438
1. Introduction
A number of observations from both the groundand space probes such as Vikings 1 and 2, the recentMars Pathfinder, and Mars Global Surveyor haveshown that there are various volcanic features onMars. Some of these volcanoes are much larger thanthe terrestrial counterparts. Particularly, OlympusMons, one of the largest volcanoes on Mars, has aheight of 
;
27 km and a diameter of 
;
600 km.Most volcanic features on Mars seem to be theresults of effusive volcanic activities involving lavaflows. Several large volcanoes are similar to shieldvolcanoes on Earth and thought to be composed
Ž
largely of low-viscosity basaltic lava e.g., Catter-
.
mole, 1989; Mouginis-Mark and Wilson, 1992 . Sev-eral other volcanoes, however, show the signs of 
Ž
explosive eruptions e.g., Mouginis-Mark et al., 1982,
.
1988; Greeley and Crown, 1990 . For example, agroup of Martian volcanoes called ‘‘highland pat-erae’’ have highly eroded slopes suggesting that theirmain bodies may have been constructed of ash or
Ž
pyroclastic deposits Greeley and Spudis, 1978;Greeley and Crown, 1990; Crown and Greeley,
.
1993 .Based on the crater density on the flanks of 
Ž .
Martian volcanoes, Plescia and Saunders 1979 ar-gued that there were various styles of volcanic activi-ties on the early stage of Martian volcanism but thatonly effusive volcanism survived until the later
Ž .
stages. Tanaka 1986 analyzed the stratigraphy of 
Ž .
Mars in detail and concluded that i the activities of highland paterae started in the late Noachian epoch,
Ž .
ii volcanism prevailed over all the volcanic regions
Ž .
on Mars during the Hesperian epoch, and iii theactive region was confined to a few locations such asthe Tharsis region from the late Hesperian to theAmazonian epoch. A general trend found here is thatolder volcanoes such as highland paterae may havebeen formed by explosive activity, and more recentvolcanoes are composed of lava flows due to effu-sive activity.
2. The condition for an explosive eruption
An explosive volcanic eruption occurs whenmagma disrupts. The disruption condition is reachedwhen the volume fraction of gases in the magmaexceeds a critical value. The volume of the exsolvedgases is controlled by the solubilities of the gases tothe magma, which is a function of pressure. Conse-quently, the explosivity of the magma depends onthe gas mass fraction of the magma, the solubility of each volatile, and the surface pressure of the planet.The solubility of water into basaltic magma,
n
, is
d
given as a function of pressure
P
in Pa, as follows
Ž
Burnham, 1975; Wilson and Head, 1981; Stolper
.
and Holloway, 1988; Pan et al., 1991 :
n P
s
6.8
=
10
y
8
P
0.7
1
Ž . Ž .
d
Fig. 1 shows the above relation. Under the surfacepressure of Earth, at least
;
0.1 wt.% of water mustbe dissolved into the magma for an explosive erup-tion to be possible. On Mars, however, only about 7ppm of water is enough to cause explosive volcanic
Ž
activity because of the low surface pressure Wilson
.
and Head, 1981 . This means that effusive eruptionsare very hard to produce on Mars because the small-est estimate for the water content of Martian magma
Ž .
is 36 ppm Dreibus and Wanke, 1987 . The observed
¨
morphology of the Martian surface shows that effu-sive volcanism is rather dominant in more recentages, which is not consistent with the considerationabove.
Ž .
Wilson and Head 1994 suggested the possibilitythat Hawaiian-type eruptions should have existed onMars. In such eruptions, optically dense fire foun-tains and ineffective entrainment of ambient air keepthe inner parts of fountains hot. Consequently, land-ing magma clots coalesce to form rootless lavas ormagma ponds, even if the magma experienced dis-ruption. The observed large-scale volcanic featureson Mars may have been formed through such erup-tions. To evaluate this possibility and derive theconditions to result in such volcanic activity, wecarried out numerical calculations of volcanic erup-tion processes under Martian conditions.
3. Model
We adopted the model by Sugita and Matsui
Ž .
1998 for Martian conditions. This model consistsof two parts, magma rise through the conduit andascent of an eruption cloud in the atmosphere. In
 
( )T. Kusanagi, T. Matsui
r
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 117 2000 437–447 
439Fig. 1. Conditions for explosive and effusive eruptions. The explosivity of magma depends on the pressure at the planetary surface. Underthe current Martian atmosphere, more than 7 ppm of H O is needed for basaltic magma to erupt explosively. This value is smaller than the
2
Ž .
least estimate for the H O content of Martian mantle by Dreibus and Wanke 1987 .
¨
2
both regions, one-dimensional homogeneous steadyflow is assumed. Our model also considers the effect
Ž .
of gas bubbles on magma viscosity Jaupart, 1996 .
3.1. The conduit 
The generally accepted view of the volcanic erup-tion process is as follows. First, magma in the magmareservoir starts to rise because of buoyancy forces
Ž .
Wilson and Head, 1981 . Thus, as it approaches thesurface, the pressure decreases and the volatiles dis-solved in the magma exsolve as gas bubbles, so that
Ž
the density of the magma decreases Wilson and
.
Head, 1981 . As a result, the magma gains buoy-ancy. The ascent velocity of the magma mainlydepends on both this buoyancy and the wall friction
Ž .
McGetchin and Ulrich, 1973 . This is not strictlytrue, as one may include some overpressure due to
Ž .
elastic effects for example, around a storage regionand viscous stresses are dominant except at the verylate stages of ascent when the magma is fragmented.However, since it its difficult to take into account theeffect of overpressure, we simply assume that thepressure in the conduit is in equilibrium with that of the surroundings. The effect of viscous stresses mightbe taken into account partly in our model because inthe assumption of one-dimensional flow the viscousstress due to horizontal velocity gradient is implicitlyincluded in wall friction.When the gas volume fraction reaches a criticalvalue, bubbles in the magma come into contact witheach other. Then the magma disrupts and the expan-sion of the gas phase causes an explosive and violenteruption. If magma disruption does not happen, theeruption is effusive and forms a lava deposit. Thecritical gas volume fraction for magma disruption isestimated to be around 70% based on the measure-
Ž .
ment of erupted materials on Earth Sparks, 1978 .
Ž .
Following Sugita and Matsui 1998 , we use the
Ž .
equations by Wilson and Head 1981 to describe thebehavior of magma in the conduit. The equations of mass and momentum conservation are numericallysolved to obtain the vent diameter and the velocity of magma. Each equation is given as follows.
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
geologist

A fine collection of Martian papers, thanks!

reply10 / 02 / 2009
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...