Introduction

In the 1970s, the two Viking spacecraft returned images of the surface of Mars in which numerous small domes, knobs, and mounds were visible. Based on the presence of summit depressions in many of these domes, they were interpreted to be rootless volcanic cones (Frey et al., 1979; Frey and Jarosewich, 1982), by analogy with similar features found in Iceland (Thoroddsen, 1894; Thorarinsson, 1951, 1953). Rootless cones (also called pseudocraters – a literal translation of the Icelandic gervigígar) form as a result of explosive lava–water interaction, whereby a flowing lava encounters a waterlogged substrate, causing violent vaporization of the water and expulsion of the lava from the explosion site (Thorarinsson, 1951, 1953). Repeated explosive pulses build a cone of disintegrated liquid and solid lava debris (Thordarson et al., 1992). As the activity at a given site within the flow wanes, explosions may be initiated elsewhere, leading to construction of a field of tens to hundreds of cones. Although they may bear a superficial resemblance to primary volcanic cones built over a subsurface conduit, Icelandic rootless cones are quite distinct, in that they are surface phreatomagmatic structures formed at the lava–substrate interface (Thordarson, 2000).

The identification of possible rootless cone fields at mid to low latitudes on Mars incited great interest because of the implication for the presence and distribution of volatiles (i.e., water or ice) in the near-surface environment on Mars (Frey et al., 1979; Frey and Jarosewich, 1982).