A volcanic feature on Mars, left, and a spatter cone in Iceland.( Ian T.W. Flynn)

You may remember the small volcanic eruption in Iceland three years ago when lava began burping its way out of a fissure. It created a few new craters while hot molten rock flowed around the rugged landscape.

Those craters caught the eye of Ian T.W. Flynn, who noticed they looked a little like a crater on the surface of Mars. As he looked closer, he found they were almost a perfect match.

Flynn was working at the University of Idaho at the time, and he realized that the similarity of these spatter cones meant Mars at one time had volcanoes like those found on Earth. To find out what this means for the red planet, Flynn joined Idaho Matters to talk more.