Preservation of random megascale events on Mars and Earth: Influence on geologic history
Effects of megascale eruptions on Earth and Mars
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Published:April 01, 2009
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Thorvaldur Thordarson, Michael Rampino, Laszlo P Keszthelyi, Stephen Self, 2009. "Effects of megascale eruptions on Earth and Mars", Preservation of random megascale events on Mars and Earth: Influence on geologic history, Mary G. Chapman, Laszlo P. Keszthelyi
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Volcanic features are common on geologically active earthlike planets. Megascale or “super” eruptions involving >1000 Gt of magma have occurred on both Earth and Mars in the geologically recent past, introducing prodigious volumes of ash and volcanic gases into the atmosphere. Here we discuss felsic (explosive) and mafic (flood lava) supereruptions and their potential atmospheric and environmental effects on both planets. On Earth, felsic supereruptions recur on average about every 100–200,000 years and our present knowledge of the 73.5 ka Toba eruption implies that such events can have the potential to be catastrophic to human civilization. A future eruption of this type may require an unprecedented response from humankind to assure the continuation of civilization as we know it. Mafic supereruptions have resulted in atmospheric injection of volcanic gases (especially SO2) and may have played a part in punctuating the history of life on Earth. The contrast between the more sustained effects of flood basalt eruptions (decades to centuries) and the near-instantaneous effects of large impacts (months to years) is worthy of more detailed study than has been completed to date. Products of mafic supereruptions, significantly larger than known from the geologic record on Earth, are well preserved on Mars. The volatile emissions from these eruptions most likely had global dispersal, but the effects may not have been outside what Mars endures even in the absence of volcanic eruptions. This is testament to the extreme variability of the current Martian atmosphere: situations that would be considered catastrophic on Earth are the norm on Mars.
- aerosols
- Asia
- atmosphere
- basalts
- calderas
- carbon dioxide
- catastrophes
- Cenozoic
- climate
- Columbia River Basalt Group
- Earth
- environmental effects
- eruptions
- explosive eruptions
- Far East
- felsic composition
- flood basalts
- gases
- geologic hazards
- igneous rocks
- Indonesia
- lava
- mafic composition
- magmas
- Mars
- mass extinctions
- Miocene
- Neogene
- pahoehoe
- phreatomagmatism
- planets
- pyroclastics
- Quaternary
- sulfur
- sulfur dioxide
- Sumatra
- temperature
- terrestrial planets
- Tertiary
- Toba Lake
- upper Quaternary
- volatiles
- volcanic ash
- volcanic features
- volcanic rocks
- volcaniclastics
- water
- megaeruptions