Scientists identify the source of Mars Rover dust currently threatening

The Opportunity Rover on Mars is trying to survive a massive dust storm that could put the craft out of service – but where does all the dust from this storm come from?

Researchers now believe they have identified the main source of Martian dust rabbits: a giant volcanic cut across the planet's surface called Medusae Fossae, according to a new study.

"Mars would not be so dusty if it was not for this huge deposit gradually erodes over time and pollutes the planet, essentially," said co-author Kevin Lewis, geophysicist planetary at Johns Hopkins University, in a statement. [Thick Dust Clouds Spotted Near Martian Ice Cap]

And that's a lot of pollution. Scientists have calculated that about 3 million tonnes (3,000 billion kilograms) of dust move each year between the surface and the atmosphere of Mars. This makes the phenomenon a crucial feature of the surface of the red planet.

The sheer volume of dust prompted scientists to look for the source of the material. First, scientists examined the chemical footprint of the dust analyzed at various sites on the planet. Strangely, this imprint looks pretty much where the sample comes from, with a very specific balance of chlorine and sulfur.

So, the team behind the new search looked for the same ratio in different rocks of Mars itself. Among the areas that scientists have examined, the best match for dust came from Medusae Fossae, a giant hack near the Martian equator that scientists think was originally created by the US. volcanic activity. According to NASA, the region extends for nearly 1,000 kilometers (620 miles).

Researchers have suggested that volcanic activity produced formation about 3 billion years ago and that the

research team estimated the amount of dust that Such a process would produce, given the size of Medusae Fossae at the beginning – about half the size of the continental United States, according to previous research.

This calculation suggests that the formation has lost enough dust to cover the planet with a layer 2 to 12 meters deep. And this estimate pretty much matches the amount of dust scientists see on the planet: about 10 feet (3 m), based on measurements of the poles and some particularly dusty regions, the team writes.

help Opportunity supports the dust storm that threatens the solar energy of the rover, but this discovery explains an extremely important feature of the red planet.

The research is described in an article published July 20 in the journal Nature Communications.

Send an email to Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her @meghanbartels . Follow us on @Spacedotcom Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com