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Volcanic Vent? Vacant Void!

This depression, some 20 km (12 mi.) in length, is situated in a crater that has been deformed by Victoria Rupes, a long system of tectonic scarps that corresponds to a fold-and-thrust belt on Earth. This depression is probably a vent from which volcanic material has issued. The location of the vent along the leading edge of the rupes suggests that magma may have migrated to the surface along the faults of this large tectonic system. Interestingly, although color data indicate that pyroclastic material erupted from this vent, there is no evidence of corresponding lava flows, commonly found with pyroclastic deposits on Earth, surrounding the vent.

Date acquired: October 11, 2012

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington