A mud volcano or erupting lava? Check out this HiRISE picture of Valles Marineris on Mars

This picture of a Martian feature, captured by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and shared by the University of Arizona, shows a hill with a central crater in Valles Marineris - a vast canyon system that runs along the Martian equator just east of the Tharsis region.

"Such features have been interpreted as both mud volcanoes (really a sedimentary structure) and as actual volcanoes (the erupting lava kind). They occur on the floor of Valles Marineris below a closed topographic contour that could have held a lake, and the compaction of wet sediments may have created mud volcanoes," the University of Arizona, which manages the HiRISE camera operations, wrote in a post.

The fracture pattern of the bright flow unit surrounding the hill resembles mud cracks. However, there have also been observations from CRISM (the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars), another key instrument aboard MRO, interpreted as high-temperature minerals, suggesting actual volcanism, although not necessarily at this location.

Either way, this activity is relatively recent in geologic time and may mark habitable subsurface environments.

This image was captured when the spacecraft was flying at an altitude of 265 km above the Martian surface.

HiPOD: A Volcano of Mud or Lava?This image shows a hill with a central crater. Such features have been interpreted as both mud volcanoes and as actual volcanoes. They occur on the floor of Valles Marineris.https://t.co/HLLozTgACqNASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona#Mars #science #NASA pic.twitter.com/Edgx1oF88P

— HiRISE: Beautiful Mars (NASA) (@HiRISE) November 23, 2023

HiRISE, short for High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, is the most powerful camera ever sent to Mars. Launched in 2005, the camera is designed to capture high-resolution images of the Martian surface in unprecedented detail. HiRISE has revolutionized humanity's understanding of the Red Planet, contributing valuable data to numerous scientific studies.