Using ingredients found in the kitchen, scientists simulated a rare terrestrial feature to investigate how this feature, which is abundant on Mars, formed.
According to RCO News Agency, Rootless cones are small volcanic physical features with a diameter of several meters to several hundreds of meters that are formed by continuous eruptions caused by the interaction between surface lava and bodies of water such as lakes and rivers. Unlike normal volcanoes, which are formed from magma that erupts from deep within the earth, rootless cones form when lava covers a water-bearing layer, causing explosive reactions. Although Iceland is home to many rootless conifers, they are less common elsewhere on Earth, with small examples found along the coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. In contrast, vast fields of rootless cones have been identified on Mars, whose formation mechanisms have become an important focus of planetary geology.
According to Niigata University, Associate Professor Rina Noguchi and her student Wataru Nakagawa from Niigata University conducted indoor analog experiments to simulate how a rootless cone would form. They used heated starch syrup as a lava analog and a mixture of baking soda and cake syrup to represent a layer containing water.
Under natural conditions, lava temperatures exceed 1,000 degrees Celsius, heating water until it vaporizes and expands explosively. However, the starch syrup only reaches about 140 degrees Celsius before it caramelizes, which is not enough to evaporate the water. To overcome this problem, the researchers used the thermal decomposition of baking soda. When the baking soda is heated by the starch syrup, it releases carbon dioxide, intensifying the foaming process and simulating explosions similar to the formation of a rootless cone. Cake syrup was added to adjust the viscosity. The researchers varied the thickness of the syrup in a glass and carefully analyzed the size and number of valves formed.
We observed that ducts often failed to maintain their structure because they were disrupted by adjacent forming ducts, the researchers explain.
This study showed that conduit competition, in addition to aquatic competition, significantly affects the spatial distribution of rootless cones. Thicker syrup layers showed more competition among conduits, increasing failed conduits, consistent with observations on Mars. On the Red Planet, thicker lavas are less associated with rootless cones. Conversely, in environments with abundant conduits that represent many rootless cones, eruptions are reduced due to limited access to water, leading to smaller cone structures. This is consistent with observations on Mars, which show that regions of thin lava lack rootless cone structures.
In addition, the failed constructs show that conduit competition universally affects rootless cone formation. These experiments and geologic observations suggest that conduit merging and separation caused by lava thickness are key factors in determining the spatial distribution and size of rootless cones.
These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of rootless cone formation on Earth and advance knowledge about similar terrestrial structures on other planets, particularly on Mars.
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