Giovanni Leone (geophysicist)

Giovanni Leone (10 February 1967 in Agrigento, Italy) is an Italian geophysicist and volcanologist. His main activity is the study of planetary geology and volcanology of the solar system.

In 2014 Leone proposed that the Valles Marineris on Mars was formed by lava and not water. In the same year, he published the results of his 3D computer simulations showing that the Martian dichotomy was formed by the Great South Polar Impact as an alternative hypothesis to the Great North Polar Impact. Some 2D models of the Large South Polar Impact were already developed by other authors since 2006.

In 2016, Leone found a confirmation of this hypothesis with the discovery of 12 volcanic alignments in the southern hemisphere of Mars, just as the 3D model had predicted. His observations of large Martian canyons and networks of lava channels from volcanoes, together with the presence of olivine unaltered since the Noachian, are challenging past visions of a hot and humid Mars with an Earth-like environment.