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Was there ever a Yellowstone on Mars? - Caldera Chronicles
Was there ever a Yellowstone on Mars? By Yellowstone Volcano Observatory November 24, 2025 Yellowstone is not just a fantastic natural laboratory for Earth-based studies. A better understanding of hydrothermal activity in the first National Park can also provide clues about what Mars might have looked like long ago. Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a weekly column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This week's contribution is from R. Greg Vaughan, research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, and Steve Ruff, associate research professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. Today, Mars is a cold and dry planet with a very thin, low-pressure atmosphere. It has water, but it's all frozen, locked up in underground ice (like permafrost) and in polar ice caps. But billions of years ago Mars had a thicker atmosphere and a warmer and wetter clima...