Due to its complex geological history, Mars is covered in ridges and holes. But one of the craters of the Red Planet baffled scientists studying its surface. Researchers have not been able to figure out what its nature is.
Known as Ismenia Patera, which is Latin for “flat bowl,” the 75-kilometer hole in a particularly flat region of Mars is a rather remarkable feature of the planet. To better understand how it formed, researchers from the European Space Agency (ESA) took some pretty impressive images of the crater.
Two main theories
Those researchers who study the surface features and geography of Mars have now presented two theories as to how Ismenia Patera came to be. The first theory assumes the following: an asteroid crashed into the planet's surface, spraying debris onto the surrounding surface, while the second theory has an equally interesting basis. Scientists are sure of the following: there was a volcano that spewed so much magma that it simply fell through.
In fact, some scientists believe that Mars was probably formed by asteroids that were so large that the planet's particles were ejected into orbit before merging with Phobos and Deimos.
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Thus, the meteor impact was the likely cause of the Ismenia Patera. According to researchers, a piece of rock caught in the northern lowland provoked the appearance of a deep crater, which we are now seeing. Over the course of several million years, sediment and ice flowed into the crater. This weakened him until he collapsed. As a result of this process, a large hole was formed.
Theory raises a lot of questions
But this theory raises a lot of questions. Many scientists argue that there is no evidence that so much debris could have accumulated after such a significant asteroid impact. This has led some researchers to suggest an alternative reason for the crater's origin. They are sure: a powerful volcano became its basis.
Powerful volcano
Researchers claim that there was once a very large volcano, but this, again, sounds paradoxical. The hypothesis is that he woke up and spewed his molten magma into the sky, then just fell through.
The Arabia Terra region is an active volcanic region. But the problem here is that a volcano of this size and with such a large volume of magma is classified as a supervolcano, which could not have been located on Mars.
Maya Muzashvili
