ExoMars detects hydrogen chloride above Alba Mons volcano on Mars — RMF24

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter detected hydrogen chloride in the lower layers of Mars' atmosphere above a system of fractures in the Alba Mons area, the largest volcano on the Red Planet by area. Researchers consider volcanic emissions associated with magmatic processes beneath the surface to be the most likely source of the gas, RMF24 reports.

Gas above a system of fractures

The observation results were published in the journal Science Advances. On Earth, hydrogen chloride is often a component of volcanic gases. Its presence in Mars' lower atmosphere above Alba Mons may indicate the release of gases from magma beneath the planet's surface.

Study co-author Professor Daniel Mège of the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the University of Bern called volcanic emissions the most likely explanation for the detection of hydrogen chloride. In his assessment, this may mean that volcanoes in this part of Mars have not become completely extinct but are dormant.

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Seasonal change in concentration

Observations showed that the concentration of hydrogen chloride increases every year at the beginning of summer on the northern slopes of Alba Mons. Researchers suggest that at other times of the year, the fractures may be blocked by ice, while warming allows gases accumulated beneath the surface to enter the atmosphere.

The data do not confirm a volcanic eruption, but indicate possible present-day magmatic processes in Mars' interior. Previously, marsquakes recorded by NASA's InSight lander also pointed to the possible continuation of geological processes. If magma heat and water reserves exist beneath the surface, hydrothermal systems could potentially form there — environments that on Earth are associated with the emergence of early forms of life.