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Tholus (Mars)

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Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

Definition

Domical-shaped central vent shield volcano.

Category

A type of shield volcano

Synonyms

Dome; Domical volcano

Plural

Tholi

Description

Tholi on Mars are central vent volcanoes with well-defined summit calderas (BVSP 1981) of up to 10 km in diameter and basal dimensions between 50 and 200 km and a height of 4–10 km (Plescia 2004). They have relatively steep peripheral flanks. Most are asymmetric with a multi-stage caldera, which appear large compared to the edifice itself. Their flanks are often buried under surrounding plains of lava flows, so that their full dimensions are indeterminable (Werner 2009). In structure they resemble shield volcanoes; some, such as Ceraunius Tholus, have numerous radial channel, and others show flow features (BVSP 1981). Most have concentric grabens similar to the large shield volcanoes (BVSP 1981). The distribution named tholi on Mars is shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Tholi on Mars (black) shown within the volcanic units (white) (After Tanaka et al. 1986...

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References

  • Basaltic Volcanism Study Project, Kaula WM, Head JW III, Merrill RB, Pepin RO, Solomon SC, Walker D, Wood CA (eds) (1981) Basaltic volcanism on the terrestrial planets. Pergamon Press, Oxford/New York/Frankfurt/Paris/Sydney/Tokyo/Toronto

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  • Mouginis-Mark PJ, Wilson L, Zuber MT (1992) The physical volcanology of Mars. In: Kieffer HH, Jakosky BM, Snyder CW, Matthews MS (eds) Mars. Arizona Press, Tucson

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  • Plescia JB (2004) Morphometric properties of Martian volcanoes. J Geophys Res 109:3003

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  • Robbins S, Achille GD, Hynek BM (2011) The volcanic history of Mars: high-resolution crater-based studies of the calderas of 20 volcanoes. Icarus 211:1179–1203

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  • Tanaka KL, Scott DH, Greeley R, Guest JE (1986) Geological map of the polar, western and eastern equatorial regions of Mars (1:15,000,000). USGS: US Geological Survey. USGS Numbered Series M(200) I no.1802–A, B, C

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  • Werner SC (2009) The global Martian volcanic evolutionary history. Icarus 201:44–68

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Comparative Planetology, Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Stephanie C. Werner

Authors
  1. Stephanie C. Werner
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Correspondence to Stephanie C. Werner .

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Werner, S.C. (2014). Tholus (Mars). In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_372-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_372-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9213-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

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