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The elongated "water ice cloud" seen lingering over Arsia Mons on Sept. 13, 2018. (European Space Agency)
- There's a long, curious cloud lingering over Mars' massive Arsia Mons volcano.
- Despite its location, the European Space Agency says it is not linked to volcanic activity.
- Volcanic activity at Arsia Mons has been extinct for about 50 million years now.
Since Sept. 13, the ESA has had their eyes fixed on the elongated cloud that appears to be spawning from the 12-mile-high volcano. However, in a recent release, the agency said it was a regular phenomenon for the area.
The 930-mile-long mass is a "water ice cloud" created by air in the Martian atmosphere interacting with the southwest slope of the volcano defunct. Scientists refer to such phenomena as cloud, since the influence of the volcano.
(MORE: Abandoned Canadian Island and Its Graves Being Consumed by Impacts of Climate Change)
For size comparison, 930 miles is roughly the distance between Jacksonville, Florida, and New York City.
Despite looking like an eruption, activity from Arsia Mons has been long extinct. NASA research released last March revealed that Arsia Mons volcano activity ceased about 50 million years ago – about the same time the dinosaurs, along with a large number of plant and animal species, went extinct on Earth.
The same elongated cloud is seen on Sep 21, 2018 (European Space Agency)
Arsia Mons is about 30 times the size of the largest volcanoes that are scattered across Earth, and similar clouds like the one spotted in September 2009, 2012 and 2015.
Each of these past clouds made known right before the Martian winter. This is no different, showing up just a few weeks before the planet's winter solstice on Oct. 16.
The ESA added the size of a cloud in the cloud.
The Weather Company's primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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