Azores volcano could be ‘lab’ for Mars exploration

The Capelinhos volcano in the Azores is “an open book” with the potential to become a “laboratory” for the exploration of the volcanic system on Mars, according to a former director of the scientific department of the US space agency, NASA.

A recent expedition saw scientists from NASA, the UK and Portugal study the volcano on Faial that was born from the sea in the late 1950s, in conditions very similar to those that are believed to have occurred on Mars a billion years ago.