Can someone please help me to summarize this article. It would be really appreci
ID: 115526 • Letter: C
Question
Can someone please help me to summarize this article. It would be really appreciated. Thanks. Here is the link for this article. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/drone360/2017/10/13/lava-flows-mars-drone/#.WeZC4dKWyUk
Lava flow: an unstoppable destructive force that burns pretty much everything in its path. When a volcano erupts, it’s important that people in surrounding areas have adequate time to evacuate. To provide those crucial extra hours, or minutes, researchers are using drones to improve hazard predictions, and perhaps tell us something about life on ancient Mars.
Drones allow volcanologists to map large areas quickly, cheaply and, most of all, safely using magnetometers and thermal cameras. Scientists are even flying drones through eruption plumes to study the chemical composition of Earth’s hot, steamy belches.
Go With the Flow
In August 2014, Mt. Holuhraun began pouring a burning carpet of lava onto the pristine highlands of northern Iceland. The lava kept flowing into 2015, with no signs of stopping. In all, it turned out to be Iceland’s largest lava flow in 230 years, covering more than 85 square miles.
“Nobody lives there, and so it didn’t attract a lot of notice, but geologically, it’s extremely significant,” says Christopher Hamilton, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. In the midst of the eruption, Hamilton, volcanologist Einat Lev of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and their colleagues headed to the mountain with a small flock of drones.
With their quads in tow, the team took flight to collect data from Mt. Holuhraun to see how lava flows respond to tiny changes in topography—like steep terrain versus flat terrain.
I am thinking about how lava interacts with its environment: any kind of obstacles or pre-existing roughness,” says Lev. “If it goes over a 20-degree slope, then it doesn’t really care about anything. But if it goes over a 1- or 2-degree slope, then it’s going to be a lot more sensitive to the little features.”
The ground around Mt. Holuhraun sloped downward at an almost imperceptible angle. That slight angle paired with the landscape’s small bumps caused a slower lava flow. That shallow slope also allowed Lev to get some really high-resolution data, which she says will eventually lead to better, more detailed hazard prediction models. But making those models for volcanoes around the world will require detailed maps of their surrounding terrain and that’s another place drones can be useful.
If local volcanologists can use drones to improve maps of the terrain around a volcano, then they can be better prepared to predict where and how quickly the lava will flow after an eruption, according to Lev. Drones can also fly over lava flows and update those maps during an eruption, letting volcanologists update those hazard predictions nearly in real-time.
What Happened on Mars?
The data captured at Holuhraun may help scientists like Hamilton understand another world entirely. He’s applying what we’ve learned from drone flights on Earth to reconstruct hydrothermal systems on early Mars.
Iceland’s dry, barren northern highlands make a great analogue for early Mars. When Holuhraun’s lava flowed into Iceland’s largest river system, it led to changes in the landscape: new hot springs, lakes and streams. After ground studies of the microbial populations of those bodies of water, biologists discovered what might turn out to be a new species of heat-loving microbes called thermophiles.
Hamilton says recent—within the past 20 million years recent—lava flows have occurred on Mars, which begs the question: Could Mars’ lava flows have created a similar environment to Iceland’s?
To answer that, he studied how the hydrothermal system created by the volcano changed as the lava flow grew and as it cooled. Hamilton’s team has repeated its research flights once a year to map changes in the lava flow, the temperature of hydrothermal vents and hot springs, and where water went as the lava cooled.
Those results, in turn, may help Hamilton draw some conclusions about how–or whether–life could have found a foothold on Mars’ briefly warm, wet environment.
Explanation / Answer
Lava flow is an unstoppable destructive force that burns everything in its path. It’s necessary that people needs adequate time to evacuate prior a volcano erupts so researchers have been using drones to give the early warnings, the hazard predictions and perhaps also telling us about the ancient Mars. Drones are easier in mapping large areas quickly, cheaply and safely along with the study of chemical compositions of the eruption plumes. The volcanic eruption of Mt. Holuhraun in Northern Iceland marks the largest lava flow of Iceland in 230 years as it covered more than 85 square miles area. Scientist Christopher Hamilton and volcanologist Einat Lev headed to the mountain with a small flock of drones to have a clear view. The team took a flight to collect data from the mountain, where Einat Lev pointed out that if the slope dips more than 20 degree the lava flow is irresistible and if its 1 or 2 degrees the flow is slowed down with more devastation caused. The ground around Mt. Holuhraun was soo gradual that the lava flow was very slow giving a high resolution data leading to detailed hazard prediction models. So using a drone in mapping a volcano not only makes it easier but also quickier along with the prediction of speed of the lava flow letting the volcanologists update the hazard prediction in real time. Through these data its useful to construct the changes in landscape taking place when a volcano enter the atmosphere. In the recent eruption of Mt. Holuhraun new hot springs, lakes and streams have evolved in Iceland's largest river system leading to the evolution of microbes like thermophiles in these heated areas. This helped Hamilton to recontruct the hydothermal system on early Mars as he says that in the past 20 million years the lava in Mars might have formed similar environments to that of Iceland. He is being studying the hydrothermal system of the volcano along with repeated research flights once a year to map the changes in the lava flow, the temperature within the hydrothermal vents and hot springs and location of the cooled lava. This would help Hamilton to draw a conclusion about possibility of life in Mars in late future.