Estimation of volcanic eruption conditions for a large flank event on Elysium Mons, Mars

Mars Orbiter Camera image (5.23 m/pixel) and topographic data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter data are used to analyze a channel on the upper no rthern flank of the Elysium Mons volcano, Mars. We show that this channel i s best explained as the product of the thermal erosion of the preexisting s urface by a high-speed, turbulent lava flow red from a fissure eruption. We deduce the volume eruption rate similar to 3400-13,000 m(3)/s dense rock e quivalent), the total volume of erupted lava (similar to 29-39 km(3) dense rock equivalent), and the duration of the activity (40-130 days). Perhaps s ignificantly, the erupted lava volume is essentially identical, given the u ncertainties in the analysis, to the volume of the observed caldera (simila r to 31 km(3)), which has implications for volume-limited eruptions on Mars and potentially for the unusual steep upper slopes of the volcano. The eru ption that produced the channel appears to have been typical for Elysium Mo ns and implies that the other lava channels on the upper flank of the volca no may also have taken similar to1-4 months to have formed.