This is an image of some Martian volcanoes.
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Image from: NASA

The History of Martian Volcanism

During its earliest history, Mars was bombarded with asteroid-like boulders leftover from the formation of Mars. The impacts of these boulders caused the surface of Mars to become warm enough for continents to drift, just as they do on Earth to this day. What is now the highlands of Mars may have once been a supercontinent which froze in place, in the southern hemisphere, when the lithosphere became immovable.

After the crust became too thick to move, a warm bubble of material, rose from the deep interior of Mars and created the Tharsis Bulge and the volcanoes. The volcanoes poured out a new surface over the lowlands of Mars. This period of volcanism is what created the Tharsis Bulge and the volcanoes. The volcanoes poured out a new surface over the lowlands of Mars.

After this period however, all volcanic activity on Mars ceased. Today there is neither continental drift nor active vocanoes on Mars.


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