Are there diamonds and gold on Mars?

Probably. I would think gold would be very likely. Diamonds require vulcanism and carbon deposits, however, and I don't think that there is lots of evidence that Mars has been very active in terms of volcanoes, so diamond deposits are probably quite rare and located near the only large volcano: Olympus Mons.


Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
Return to Ask the Astronomer.