The hole is the entrance to an underground cavern.
Using a digital model of the terrain around the hole, researchers have estimated that this debris pile is at least 203 feet tall. Furthermore, the top of the pile lies about 92 feet below the rim of the central opening, indicating that the underground cavity was once 295 feet deep, before the material from the crater fell inside.NASA, JPL, U. Arizona
Researchers think that on Mars, caverns like this could be the result of ancient volcanic activity. Pavonis Mons, which stands higher than Everest at 46,000 feet tall, is a shield volcano, which was formed by successive lava flows cooling and stacking on top of each other. These lava tubes are found on Earth in volcanic hotspots such as Hawaii, Iceland, and the Galapagos Islands. There are several potential candidates of lava tubes on both the moon and Mars.
The team, led by Riccardo Pozzobon from the University of Padova, Italy, carried out the first comparison of lava tube caves on Earth and candidate lava tube caves on the moon and Mars. They found these caverns could potentially house human space settlements or even be promising places to search for signs of life, on Mars at least.
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