Is it possible to create a better atmosphere around Mars by setting off a volcano?
If so, how? While this was an interesting idea in that Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, it was really just science fiction. Volcanoes themselves don’t spew out enough gas in an eruption to actually add enough material to make the atmosphere thicker in a short time. At the peak of an eruption in Hawaii, a volcano puts out around 2000 tons of gas. Now that sounds like a lot, but the total Earth atmosphere is around 5,000,000,000,000,000 tons, or more than a trillion times more massive than that! The Hawaiian volcano would have to erupt at that rate every day for 7 billion years to make the whole Earth atmosphere. Since Earth is only 4.5 billion years old, volcanoes aren’t a good way to make a new atmosphere. For more volcano facts you can visit the USGS web site. 3) How long does it take light from the Sun to get to Mars? On average in its orbit, Mars is about 228,000,000,000 meters away from the sun (that’s 2.28 x 1011 m in scientific notation). Light travels at 300,000,000 meters/second (3
