If Earth has plates in the Earths Crust, would Mars have plates too?
Mars has several theories about plate tectonics. Its deemed that right now there is none (except past one plate system) There is estimated to be active subsurface magma activity driving aquifers for the gullies and other martian surface features. Mars is also theorized to have a liquid core; if it was partially solid or solid there would have been more recent magnetic field anomalies. Convection drives the plate tectonics but since Mars didn’t go through a planetary process like Earth did, its stages stopped early on in planetary formation (planetary embryo) and formed a thick crust (so it does have a lithosphere) but does not have subduction or diverging plates. The volcanoes form like the volcanoes in Yellowstone or Hawaii; directly from the mantle. Other planets depend on their magmatic activity; Venus doesn’t have tectonic either, just has massive eruptions.
