Scientists used radar readings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to estimate ice thickness in the region to between 80 to 170 meters thick, as published recently in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
That spectacular show, along with lava flows up to 20 meters thick, and "lava falls" to the volcano's northeast, turned it into a full-fledged tourist attraction.
They say that the British shale formations appear to be 3,000 to 4,000 feet, or 915 to 1,220 meters, thick — several times as thick as those found in the United States.
As much a third of the glacial ice above the crater has melted — it had been up to 250 meters thick in spots — raising the level of a nearby river by nearly a meter and covering some roads.
That light-toned layer is about 300 meters thick.
The stratum itself may not be much more than a few meters thick.
Most of those terraces are a few meters thick, Mackey says.
The peat, a product of decaying organic matter, is up to 20 meters thick in places.
The plume surveyed by Endeavor was only 200 meters thick and about 2 kilometers wide.
The targeted Ordovician Majiagou Formation in the location of interest is more than 700 meters thick.
In such areas, layers of mushy material could be hundreds of meters thick or more, Neish says.
