Ceraunius Tholus is a volcano on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

located in the

Tharsis quadrangle The Tharsis quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The Tharsis quadrangle is also referred to as MC-9 (Mars Chart-9). The name Tharsis ref ...

at 24.25° north latitude and 262.75° east longitude, part of the

Uranius group of volcanoes The Uranius group of volcanoes is located on planet Mars in the northeast part of Tharsis and includes Uranius Mons, Ceraunius Tholus, and Uranius Tholus. Along with the Tharsis Montes to the southwest, they form part of a linear chain of volca ...

. It is across, approximately high and is named after a classical

albedo Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body that refle ...

feature name. It is generally believed to be a basaltic shield with the lower part buried beneath plain forming lavas. Earlier interpretations suggested that it is a

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and peri ...

. The slopes on Ceraunius Tholus are quite steep with an average slope of 8° with many radial erosion channels and pitted valleys extending from just below the rim of the

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

toward the base of the volcano. The current view is that the valleys were eroded by water. Interesting features on Ceraunius Tholus are three large canyons at the northwest flank of Ceraunius Tholus which are up to 2.5 km wide and 300 m deep. The biggest of these three also appears to be the youngest and protrude from the lowest point of the volcanic caldera and ends at the interesting crater Rahe (an oblique impact crater with measures of 35 × 18 km), just north from the volcano where it formed a depositional fan. Its origin is still debatable and there are four main models proposed: fluvial action, volcanic flows, valley being a lava channel or some combination of previously mentioned models. Ceraunius appears small compared to other larger volcanoes, but it is almost as tall as Earth's

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow hei ...

. The caldera of Ceranius Tholus is also dotted with many collapse pits, which are distinct from impact craters as they have no rim and vary in abundance across the caldera. Ceraunius Tholus is probably late

Hesperian The Hesperian is a system (stratigraphy), geologic system and geologic timescale, time period on the planet Mars characterized by widespread Volcanology of Mars, volcanic activity and catastrophic flooding that carved immense outflow channels acr ...

in age. The crater

Paros Paros (; el, Πάρος; Venetian: ''Paro'') is a Greek island in the central Aegean Sea. One of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of ...

lies south of Ceraunius Tholus, and the elongate crater Rahe is to the north.

Glaciers

Some scientists believe that

glaciers A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...

may have existed on many of the volcanoes in

Tharsis Tharsis () is a vast volcanic plateau centered near the equator in the western hemisphere of Mars. The region is home to the largest volcanoes in the Solar System, including the three enormous shield volcanoes Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons, and As ...

including Olympus Mons, Ascraeus Mons, and Pavonis Mons. Ceraunius Tholus may have even had its glaciers melt to form some temporary lakes in the past. The smoothness and flatness of the Ceraunius Tholus caldera floor suggests that in the past meltwater accumulated in a caldera lake.

Environment around Ceraunius Tholus

Ceraunius Tholus is on the Tharsis rise, also called the Tharsis bulge. Tharsis is a land of great

volcanoes A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

Olympus Mons Olympus Mons (; Latin for Mount Olympus) is a large shield volcano on Mars. The volcano has a height of over 21.9 km (13.6 mi or 72,000 ft) as measured by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). Olympus Mons is about two and a ha ...

is the tallest known volcano. Ascraeus Mons and

Pavonis Mons Pavonis Mons (Latin for "peacock mountain") is a large shield volcano located in the Tharsis region of the planet Mars. It is the middle member of a chain of three volcanic mountains (collectively known as the Tharsis Montes) that straddle the ...

are at least 320 km across and are over 10 km above the

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...

that they sit on. The plateau is five to four seven kilometers above the zero altitude of Mars.Norton, O. 2002. Mapping Mars. Picador, New York. Tharsis Quadrangle map-la

Image:Ceraunius Tholus Channel.JPG, Ceraunius Tholus Channel, as seen by

HiRISE High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is a camera on board the '' Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' which has been orbiting and studying Mars since 2006. The 65 kg (143 lb), US$40 million instrument was built under the direction ...

. The summit crater of Ceraunius Tholus is just to the right of this picture. Click on image to see

dark slope streaks Dark slope streaks are narrow, avalanche-like features common on dust-covered slopes in the equatorial regions of Mars.Chuang, F.C.; Beyer, R.A.; Bridges, N.T. (2010). Modification of Martian Slope Streaks by Eolian Processes. ''Icarus,'' 205 154 ...

. The scale bar is 1000 meters long. Image:Cerauniustholus.jpg, View of Ceraunius Tholus and Uranius Tholus from the Mars Orbiter Camera of ''

Mars Global Surveyor ''Mars Global Surveyor'' (MGS) was an American robotic space probe developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched November 1996. MGS was a global mapping mission that examined the entire planet, from the ionosphere down through t ...

''. Image:Ceraunius Tholus 3D THEMIS dayIR-MOLA 5x vert.jpg, Computer-generated 3D view of Ceraunius Tholus with 5x vertical exaggeration. The image was obtained from THEMIS coverage plus MOLA altimetry. The crater Rahe is at left.

Glaciers

Environment around Ceraunius Tholus

References

See also