Scientists find evidences that point out to acid fogs.
A new study conducted by the planetary scientist Shoshanna Cole reveals acid erosions on Martian surface. For some time now, Doctor Cole has studied Rover’s footage of the Martian soil. She seems particularly interested in a 100-acrea area located around Husband Hill, in the Gusev Crater.
A couple of years ago, the probe Rover picked up some unusual readings on one of the bedrocks. It seems that the bedrock underwent a strange process making it look like a strange and disgusting rock soup. The bedrock had fade traces of an unknown gel that has basically melted the rock.
Cole’s theory is that the bedrock melted over the course of thousands of years due to an extreme weather condition known as acid fogs. On Mars, acid fogs have formed due to extreme volcanic activity over the course of many years. The effect on Martian soil is rather subtle and very difficult to detect. The scientist theorized that the process of erosion took place millions years ago.
In order to understand that contributes to the formation of acid fog, we would have to take a look at modern volcanology. It seems that a similar process can be found on Earth. Scientist use the analogy between the Mars situation and a natural phenomenon occurring in Hawai’i called the vog.
Scientific literature says that “vog” is the term used to describe different aspects of air pollution. This specific kind of pollution releases sulfur dioxide and other noxious fumes in the atmosphere when an erupting volcano reacts with the oxygen in our atmosphere in the presence of sunlight. This phenomenon is often mistaken with the term of smog. Typically, you have a vog when the sulfur oxides react with oxygen in order to create an aerosol. In the case of a smog, fuel combustion reacts with nitrogen oxides and ozone.
Another researcher by the name of Ralph Milliken from Brown University, looks towars Cole’s claims with suspicion. He says that over the years many models were developed in order to test the acidic fog theory, but the results were inconclusive.
Shoshanna Cole studied quite a lot of rock formation in order to further strengthen her theory. She took a keen interest in the rocky area situated near the Cumberland Ridge and Husband Hill Top. That particular area is called Watchtower class and it seem to hold many of the clues Cole needs in order to wrap up this geological mystery. Still, she is still somewhat confused about the results because by using different instruments she got different sets of results.
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