Hello everyone! I have a thought.... Mars is about half the size of Earth yet it has a volcano (Olympus Mons) that is about four times the size of Mt. Everest on Earth! Now, if, and i think when that bad boy blew sometime in ancient solar history it would have sent massive amounts of material into mars's atmosphere killing most or all organic lifeforms on the planet and causing it to appear distinctly red to ancient peoples of earth reciving god of war statis and slowly dimming since the time of the event, and considering the scale may even have ejected some materials into space. All that dust and rock and gas caught in mars atmosphere would fall back to blanket the bones of any structures or citys that may have existed, and is only now being slowly uncovered, due to erosion and apmospheric stabalisation and our ability to see and film the places that until only last century had been speculation, possibly causing large deep rooted indescrepencys in writen history or fact? OK NOW Questions for the world....

Q1. Do you think its possible for a species to have evolved to a level of high tech then been destroyed by nature possably as a result?
Q2 Why does the mention of such possibilities still cause a saturated state of scepticism in general society?
Q3. Does the fact that i have never offically studied this subject other then as a hobby affect my conclusion?

Answer to Q3 -- I think your name is more detrimental to your cause than anything; no one likes a succubus I do like your observations, I was not really aware of the size of Olimpus Mons, but on the other hand, when was it last active?

My guess is Olympus Mons hasn't been active since early man began worshiping mars as the God of war for its stark redness and hostile look (a sign of large scale planetary activity?) or way before.

The fact that it has large rocks on top of and in the sand and dust layer (some with impact crators some not) would indicate some type of barrage/s during the time the atmosmphere was settling from the first devastating volcanic eruption. Such large atmospheric changes would cause repeat eruptions and considering again the size of the volcano i belive it may have spat matierial space, some getting stuck in orbit around the planet that could take a long time to randomly crash back to Mars surface and having lost her protective atmosphere Mars would have been much more exposed to meteorite impacts. Cooling fast due to a rapidly thinning atmosphere would have plugged the giant that killed her.

Maybe during the eruption that killed all life on her planet Olympus Mons seeded nearby earth with the components needed to start human evolution or many forms of life on Earth, or sent the rock that killed the dinosaurs or both..? One of my many thoughts ;-)

Mars lost his protective atmosphere from millions of years of proton bombardment from the sun. Earth has a protective magnetic field that deflects the protons.

Everything with mass creates a magnetic field, something to do with two types of gravity, one that is contained by the atom and one that can escape to about a planck length causing it to affect its surroundings, so on the large scale the mass of a planet affects its gravatational strength, the stronger the field the thicker the atmosphere can become.
Being of nice rock and not a gas planet Mars could have had a very lovely and protective atmosphere at one time, considering the pressence of large quantities of ice found on her and her topography suggests oceans and lakes long eroded. (where you have fire and ice you have the melting pot for life.)
Also there is the possibility that some of her density may have been violently ejected into space during an epic volcanic eruption/s.
Personally i think a planet with a time bomb on it that big wasn't killed by the sun.
The sun no doubt would have played a big part in helping to strip the atmosphere already diluted and weakend by Olympus Mons volcanic Gases for millions of years after the event, which may have accured very early in our solar history compared to our own evolution.

I believe Earths position in the Solar system and its moon give rise to the "goldilocks" effect, which is to say that Earth is just right for life. Many have speculated on whether our civilisation was seeded from Mars, but its fairly far out to consider it such. As for a volcano spitting out a huge portion of mars density, I can't take that leap of faith unfortunately. Sure a large volcano spits out more mass, but still, a good analogy would be our toilet habits: Losing even 25% of your body weight on the toilet is impossible, if it were possible then I'd consider what your saying on a planetary level.

The other thing is I dont think the size of the volcano means the eruption will be a monster, only that the volcano has erupted a lot and built up its size over time. There are volcanos bigger than Everest under our seas as far as i know.

It would take much much less then a 25% loss to affect the atmosphere. Any loss at all would affect the atmosphere to a degree considering the mass largly determines the atmosphere. Earth is just right for our type of particular life yes, but i think life grows to suit its envivonments so long as it has the basic building blocks. (look at extremophiles) I think due to the size of Mars and the size of Olymus Mons it is possible for the volcano to have reached Mars's Lower atmosphere, possibly creating a helping hand for escaping matirial? (It would be like the whole of the Earth's north pole ice radius as one massive volcano about eight times as high as everest.) Where as the cause of undersea volcano's mostly is much thinner crust area's causing black smokers and almost constantly flowing lava tubes? A hot planet that cools fast will trap pressure inside that must come out somewere, maybe adding to Olympus Mons intensity possibly being the only vent? Also the moon in relatively recent history was much much closer to Earth, leading me to belive the same rule could apply for Earth or Mar's relationship with the sun. Unless a planet is on exactly the right orbit around its govening body it will either be slowly drawn in or move away. (over a very large time period) That means in very very ancient solar history it is possible for mars to have orbited much closer to the sun?

I read somewhere that the odds of earth having produced intelligent life are so staggering that statistically speaking the chances for another solar system in the universe to reproduced the "miracle" are about one in hundreds of billions. If only I could remember where I read that.

Everything being complex formations of a few basic elements, i think we have a very limited scope of the possible varieties of life out there, (look at our own diverse planet, and its just a speck in the ocean of space!) I think very very smart people have calculated the odd's of 'humans' being anywere else..
(Just more of my crazy theories) ;-)

There was a recent article in Discover or SEED about the life on Mars scenario. If I can find it at home, I'll type in the relevant parts. Or it may be online in their archives.

But in it they listed a common way of thinking: we naturally assume that extraterrestrial life would be similar to us, i.e. carbon based. It's suggested in the article that we use that as a starting base, but that we also have to take into consideration that the building blocks may be made out of something else entirely.

Start to research organisms that live in extreme environments on Earth, and you'll find that life has a way of surviving by adapting to even the harshest climates.

I belive life has the capacity to take on many more forms of existence then we can scientifically acknowledge/justify at this time.

I would like to turn everyone's attention to the region of Mars named Cydonia.
(Im a noob and still haven't figured out how to post pics...yet. lol)
Personally, (and probably widley) i think its geometrical objects hint at possible ruins being
uncovered by erosion. Just like any old dig it will tell its tale in time,
but for now its in the hands of the sceptical/thoughtful...

I doubt very much that these are ruins on mars, especially since the first thing people equate them to is the pyramids. Then theres the "face" to contend with, and im sure simple psychology shows that the first thing a human brain looks for is predators, familiar faces, then objects etc. This is why so many people see images of Jesus on things such as toast or an ice cube. This is my favourite by far:

http://libcom.org/forums/libcommunity/lord...rs-in-dogs-arse

Thanks for posting this--that made my day

Ah! That pic is so ridiculous.

Hahahahaha! That picture is hallirious! loosen up a little bit, Greeneye!

LOL!! im LVH at the moment..(wipes a tear)
Well.. Dog is God in reverse..
Is that a terrible message from heaven..?
Or just exactly what it is?
Maybe Heaven's sign writers are getting wise.
I'll have too have a word with the boss.. ;-)

Its proof that the human mind see's human forms, especially faces, in almost everything. If you give a person enough context before exposing a "truth", its easier for them to buy in to mysteries.