Nov 24 1976
From The Space Library
A lunar scientist in Johnson Space Center's Division of Lunar and Planetary Sciences had suggested that low-viscosity lava rather than water could have caused the large channels seen on Mars, JSC announced. Ernest Schonfeld, in a paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the Am. Geophysical Union, said that the abundant large channels-one of the most puzzling landforms on Mars-were more easily explained by lava than by water; scientists had not been able to identify thick deposits of sediment that should have resulted from channel formation by water. Viking 1 had landed near the mouth of a large channel where thick sediments should have been deposited, but rocks at that site appeared to be volcanic. Schonfeld proposed that thin basaltic liquid melted below the Mars surface had flowed freely to erode the surface, and said that the coincidence of the age of volcanic activity on Mars and the erosion of the channels supported his idea. (JSC Release 76-72)
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