Hadriacus Mons is an ancient, low-relief volcanic mountain on the planet
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 southern hemisphere just northeast of the
impact basin
An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact craters ...
Hellas and southwest of the similar volcano
Tyrrhenus Mons. Hadriacus Mons is in the
Hellas quadrangle
The Hellas quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The Hellas quadrangle is also referred to as MC-28 (Mars Chart-28).
The Hellas quadrangle c ...
. It has a diameter of . The name was approved in 2007.
The flanks of Hadriacus Mons have been eroded into gullies; its southern slopes are incised by the
outflow channel
Outflow channels are extremely long, wide swathes of scoured ground on Mars. They extend many hundreds of kilometers in length and are typically greater than one kilometer in width. They are thought to have been carved by huge outburst floods.
...
Dao Vallis
Dao Vallis is a valley on Mars that appears to have been carved by water. It runs southwestward into Hellas Planitia from the southern slopes of the volcano Hadriacus Mons, and has been identified as an outflow channel. It and its tributary, Nige ...
. The large extent of volcanic deposits and the caldera size leads some researchers to suggest that these features were the result of an explosive event caused by a contact between magma and groundwater.
[Calderón, L.; Robertson, K.; Tovar, D. 2015]
Geomorphologic Evolution of the Zone of Hadriaca Patera in Mars
46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, 2074.
''Hadriaca Patera'', a term formerly used for the entire edifice, is now only used for the central
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 ...
, which is in diameter.
It has been suggested that
lava tubes at Hadriacus Mons could provide a location for a human habitat that would screen out harmful
radiation.
See also
*
List of mountains on Mars
This is a list of all named mountains on Mars.
Most mountains have a name including one of the following elements:
* ''Mons'': a large, isolated, mountain.
* ''Montes'', plural of ''mons'': a mountain range.
* ''Tholus'': a small dome-shaped mount ...
*
List of mountains on Mars by height
This is a list of mountains on Mars by elevation, the vertical position relative to the areoid, which is the Martian vertical datum (the surface defined as zero elevation by average martian atmospheric pressure and planet radius). Elevation is ''n ...
*
Volcanoes on Mars
Volcanic activity, or volcanism, has played a significant role in the geologic evolution of Mars. Scientists have known since the Mariner 9 mission in 1972 that volcanic features cover large portions of the Martian surface. These features in ...
References
External links
Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature
Mountains on Mars
Hellas quadrangle
Volcanoes of Mars
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