These are based upon experimentation, and in the theory, because of the way electricity works, it can and does occur naturally. The objective of this article, though, wasn't to prove or disprove whether or not they are natural - it was to prove or disprove the impact hypothesis. This was not result of impact or volcanism. It is a blister from an interplanetary discharge or other rather large electrical discharge.
These articles should help further clarify the differences between natural phenomena and something more, and make it easier to identify the causes of certain strange shapes as either natural or unnatural. There are craters on Earth claimed to be impact craters but do not bear the hallmarks of either an impact crater or a discharge crater, and look more like the results of nuclear explosions, so keep an open mind.
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Yes, it does look as if this has similarities to the lab experiment, but there is no proof or evidence that this kind of thing happens naturally (ie: without some being blasting a 'ray' of some kind at the surface).
On Earth, we see lightning in the atmosphere and on Mars there may have been observed lightning, I dont know, but where is the current evidence that this happens now? If it happened in the past, there is no evidence apart from these signs which have been left behind.
Natural occurrances are not the only cause - if one assumes that there are beings capable of making such a weapon. I realise that ANY alien life is speculative, but so is this hypothesis.
suddenly rendered nearly uninhabitable by enormous electrical events, How can you say that these supposed electrical events rendered Mars nearly uninhabitable? There is no evidence to show this. In fact, there is MORE evidence to show that there is quite a large amount of habitation currently on Mars.
You have said at least twice in different posts that Mars is virtually uninhabited but clearly from our evidence on this forum - it is NOT.
Given the notion that Mars may have been covered with liquid water and an environment advantageous to complex life in the past 10,000 years and suddenly rendered nearly uninhabitable by enormous electrical events, you can see why the idea is interesting. What caused these events? I would say it could have been natural, but given the short time frame, one may wonder why the same hasn't happened on Earth given the long time it's been around. And let's not forget the rediculously recent timeframe of that assumption, hehe.
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What if Pinnochio says that his nose will grow longer?
Mars photo credits: MSSS/THEMIS Lab photos on upper right by Wal Thornhill
Jul 05, 2004 Olympus Mons
Olympus Mons on the planet Mars defies categorization as a "volcano," but bears a striking similarity to a lightning blister.
Olympus Mons on the planet Mars is taller than three Mount Everests and about as wide as the entire Hawaiian Island chain. But it¹s almost as flat as a pancake. Its edge is nearly as abrupt as a pancake, too, ending in a scarp up to 6 kilometers (almost 4 miles) high.
The huge mound rises amidst several lesser regions of the Tharsis Bulge. Planetary scientists call Olympus Mons a volcano. But when examined in detail, it bears only a superficial resemblance to some earthly volcanoes.
Olympus Mons has all the characteristics of a lightning blister. Such raised bell-shaped blisters can be found on the caps of lightning arrestors after a cloud-to-ground strike. They are called "fulgamites". The material that forms the elevated fulgamite is scavenged from the surrounding surface to produce an encircling depression or moat. Olympus Mons has such a moat, which does not match the bulge expected from upwelling magma beneath a volcano.
Earthly lightning usually consists of a number of strokes in quick succession along the same ionized path. So the discharge that creates a fulgamite is often followed by successive lesser strokes that may excavate overlapping pits on the top of the fulgamite. The six overlapping circular craters on the summit of Olympus Mons display this pattern. The smaller craters center on the walls of the larger and are cut to different depths, as if with a cookie cutter. Such a pattern is not volcanic, where the caldera floors are supposed to be due to collapse or draining of magma from beneath.
A laboratory example of an electric arc scar on a clay anode surface is shown on the right. At moderate power, the electric arc rotates (top right) and raises an extensive circular blister, seen clearly in the middle right image. As the power is increased, the arc briefly stops moving and burns a small circular crater, seen as a glowing spot in the top image and at 4 o¹clock in the bottom image. The tendency for the arc to "stick" to one spot on the anode creates localized very high temperatures, sufficient to vaporize some of the anode surface to form smooth circular crater floors and steep terraced walls exactly as seen in the Olympus Mons calderas.
Do we see any volcano on Earth produce such a configuration on its summit now? We can find none. Yet the pattern is repeated more than once on the Martian Tharsis Bulge (row of pictures below), including the summit of neighboring Ascraeus Mons (lower left), a striking replica of the Olympus Mons "calderas".
The electrical hypothesis maintains that within minutes successive strokes from a cosmic lightning bolt lifted the peak and carved the craters on the summit. It seems likely that the Tharsis Bulge will also trace to the same period of Martian history, when the planet must have engaged another charged body at close range. If so, evidence of such an exchange must be pervasive on the Martian surface, and all the major features of the planet must be reconsidered from this new viewpoint. Though geologists have never entertained the electrical scarring of rocky planets and moons, rapidly accumulating evidence has the potential to change this situation dramatically.
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What if Pinnochio says that his nose will grow longer?
