This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: New evidence from gas seeping above volcanic rifts suggests Mars is not geologically dead deep inside, but merely sleeping. Fresh fissures along the Alba Mons region hint at active spots under the surface, where gases from inside the planet may be making their way up to the surface.
An international research team led by Alexander Trokhimovskiy suggests that the release of hydrogen chloride comes from hot magma beneath the surface—a sign of dormant volcanism. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) first reported hydrogen chloride gas in the Martian atmosphere back in 2021. This gas is commonly found escaping from magmatic vents on Earth, leading researchers to wonder whether the same was happening on Mars.
"Our findings suggest that Mars has retained enough internal heat to support volcanic activity until recently, and possibly still does," says Daniel Mège, professor at the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences and co-lead author of a paper published in Science Advances. It was early summer in the northern hemisphere of Mars when a team of researchers noticed spikes of hydrogen chloride where it shouldn't have been, and during an odd season. This gas varies seasonally on Mars, reaching its maximum in northern hemisphere winter, then mostly disappearing in the summer.
Most of this variability appears to be linked with Mars' dust and water cycles. Yet there was one exception to this pattern, always in the same season and at the same place—above volcanic fissures on the flanks of the Alba Mons volcano, in early summer. Mars has the largest volcanoes in the solar system, but it is not known how active they are.
Orbital imagery shows that some volcanoes appear to have been active within the last few million years, and seismometers have detected marsquakes—the earthquakes of Mars. Both facts point to the possibility of Mars being volcanically active. However, no new lava flows or eruptions have ever been observed.
The finding is the result of combined atmospheric and geological analysis. First came the detection of hydrogen chloride strongly localized in space and at a time just after the frosts of winter sublimate. The infrared spectrometers from TGO's Atmospheric Chemistry Suite were on the case.
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