PROVIDENCE, RI -- Shifting glaciers and exploding volcanoes
aren't confined to Mars' distant past, according two new reports
in the journal Nature. Glaciers moved from the poles to the
tropics 350,000 to 4 million years ago, depositing massive
amounts of ice at the base of mountains and volcanoes in the
eastern Hellas region near the planet's equator, based on a
report by a team of scientists analyzing images from the Mars
Express mission. Scientists also studied images of glacial
remnants on the western side of Olympus Mons, the largest
volcano in the solar system. They found additional evidence of
recent ice formation and movement on these tropical mountain
glaciers, similar to ones on Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. In a
second report, the international team reveals previously unknown
traces of a major eruption of Hecates Tholus less than 350,000
million years ago. In a depression on the volcano, researchers
found glacial deposits estimated to be 5 to 24 million years
old. James Head, professor of geological