Syria Planum volcanic province, an example of diffuse volcanism on Mars: insights from vents distribution analysis and spatial clustering

Long-lasting widespread volcanism contributed to heavily shaping the surface of Mars. In fact, the Tharsis volcanic province is one of the largest volcanic provinces with the largest shield volcanoes of the Solar System, Mount Olympus and the NE-SE trending Tharsis Montes, namely Ascareaus, Pavonis and Arsia Mons.

However, volcanism on Mars is characterized also by the presence of wide volcanic fields, either in form of small shields or monogenic cones. The region of Syria Planum (SP), located eastern to the Tharsis province and encompassed between Noctis Labyrinthus on the North and Claritas Fossae on the southwest, is an example of diffuse volcanism. SP presents hundreds of small edifices which insist on top of a large bulge roughly 300x200 km in size.

New chronological results pointed out a complex magmatic history and volcano-tectonic evolution of the whole Tharsis and SP area spanning from the early-Noachian to the more recent times such as the 130 Ma of the Arsia Mons’ single caldera and the 140 Ma for the Pavonis Mons’ composite calderas. Although through the years SP has been considered the by-product of the enormous volcano-tectonic activity forming the Tharsis, it has been shown that this magmatic complex could be related to large multiple episodes of mantle upwelling forming minor edifices that do not necessarily overlap with the major volcanic centres. Moreover, the NW-SE elongated SP volcanic field grew just south of the Noctis Labyrinthus canyon systems that form a dissected highland and is located at the western tip of the Valles Marineris.

In this work, we investigate the geometry of the plumbing system of the SP volcanic field as well as the structures (vent elongation and vent alignment) that fed the magma to forward a possible tectonic and volcanic evolution of the area. The spatial distribution of vents and the overall shape of the volcanic field have been studied in terms of vent clustering and spatial distribution. Moreover, analyzing the lineament pattern on SP and surrounding areas possible links with the formation and evolution of the Noctis Labyrinthus graben, the Valles Marineris and the Tharsis province are forwarded.