Azernews.Az

By Alimat Aliyeva

Scientists from the International Institute for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence SETI announced the discovery of a new giant volcano on Mars, Azernews reports, citing the official website of the SETI Institute.

SETI Institute named it Noctis, which means "night" in Latin. Noctis is located in the volcanic province of Tharsis, located near the equator of Mars. Other huge Martian volcanoes are located in the same area: Mons Pavonis (altitude — 14,000 meters), Mons Askrey (18,000 meters) and Mons Arcia (19,000 meters).

According to experts, although the open mountain is more eroded and less high than other volcanoes of the Red Planet, its scale is still impressive — the diameter is 450 kilometers and the height reaches 9022 meters.

The enormous size of the Noctis volcano and the complex history of changes indicate that it has been active for a very long time. In addition, thin recent volcanic deposits are located in its southeastern part, under which ice is probably still present, the researchers said.

SETI noted that the presence of ice at a shallow depth near the equator means that humans can potentially explore a less cold area of Mars while retaining the ability to extract water to support life and produce rocket fuel.

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