Photos below sent to me from Andrew Ryan, graduate student at Arizona State University’s School of Earth & Space Exploration. He co-authored an article that revealed evidence of lava coils on Mars (click here for my earlier blog about this today). I asked Ryan for photos (being as I’m from the Big Island of Hawaii where the active volcanoes are) and here’s what he sent me. First two of Mars, taken by NASA/JPL/University of Arizona, and the last one of Hawaii is courtesy of USGS.

Martian landscape with lava coils, colorized

Hawaiian lava coil

The article about this discovery in Science is co-authored by ASU Regent’s Professor of Geological Science Philip Christensen.

http://azstarnet.com/news/science/asu-grad-student-spies-odd-lava-spirals-near-martian-equator/article_87957678-e676-5c8e-9486-d7fbe0d2c1db.html

Science surprise of the day: read this morning that lava coils/spirals have been discovered on Mars near the equator. The Arizona Daily Star article (above) says they look similar to lava coils in Hawaii. The Martian ones are apparently 16 to 100 feet across.

I grew up on the Big Island of Hawaii (which has the only live volcanoes in the State of Hawaii) and have seen numerous eruptions of both a’a (chunky) and pahoehoe (smooth, river-like) lava flows. I’ve noticed some coils but not quite like that or that many as shown in the aerial photo, which accompanies that Star article.

Next time I’m back home on Hawaii Island, it will definitely be worth a trip to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to take another look. All national parks and monuments are free this week (National Park Week) till April 29 (click here).

Update: Here’s the original article in Science Journal (click here), entitled:

“Coils and Polygonal Crust in the Athabasca Valles Region, Mars, as Evidence for a Volcanic History” by Andrew J. Ryan and Philip R. Christensen.

Photos of Martian (and Hawaiian) lava coils published separately:
http://tucsoncitizen.com/community/2012/04/27/photos-of-martian-and-hawaiian-lava-coils/