A different kind of chaos on Mars
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on June 23, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). I had originally chosen to feature a different picture of this spot, taken on August 1, 2024 in order to create a stereo pair, but this week the camera team featured this first photo, providing a caption.
This disrupted surface is characterized by a collection of rounded to flat-topped mounds of various sizes connected by narrow flat floors, typical of the aptly named “chaotic terrain” on Mars.
What could have caused this flat surface to break into pieces? You might imagine that a flat surface could be broken up if it was inflated or collapsed. One hypothesis is that large amounts of water were released from deep below the ground to cause the surface break up.
Normally on Mars, especially in the mid-latitudes, chaotic terrain is associated with glacial activity, suggesting that glaciers over time erode valleys along random criss-crossing fault lines to create the mesas and canyons. This patch of chaotic terrain however suggests a different formation process.
The white dot in the rectangle on the overview map to the right marks the location. The inset shows this entire patch of chaos terrain, dubbed Ister Chaos, with the green box marking the area covered by the photo above. Unlike other chaos regions, Ister is a very distinct patch on a smooth relatively featureless plain. It appears almost as if the supporting ground beneath a flat structurally weak surface had suddenly been removed, causing that surface to collapse and break into pieces.
The caption suggests a flood of underground water could have removed that underlying material. As Ister Chaos is also in one of the several major outflow channels draining the large high elevation region where the Red Planet’s largest volcanoes are grouped, this theory makes some sense. The data we presently have suggests catastrophic floods from that high region shaped these outflow channels, though this theory is hardly proven.
The two-mile-wide deep crater in the lower left of the picture strengthens the theory. It has almost no rim, suggesting that the impact, which occurred after Ister was formed, hit relatively soft ground that was able to absorb the energy without throwing off much ejecta. Instead, the impact drilled downward, compacting the ground so that the floor of the crater sits well below the random surrounding canyons.
None of this theorizing of catastrophic floods eliminates the possibility that glacial activity formed this chaos, however. The available data is simply insufficient to come to any definitive conclusions.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on June 23, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). I had originally chosen to feature a different picture of this spot, taken on August 1, 2024 in order to create a stereo pair, but this week the camera team featured this first photo, providing a caption.
This disrupted surface is characterized by a collection of rounded to flat-topped mounds of various sizes connected by narrow flat floors, typical of the aptly named “chaotic terrain” on Mars.
What could have caused this flat surface to break into pieces? You might imagine that a flat surface could be broken up if it was inflated or collapsed. One hypothesis is that large amounts of water were released from deep below the ground to cause the surface break up.
Normally on Mars, especially in the mid-latitudes, chaotic terrain is associated with glacial activity, suggesting that glaciers over time erode valleys along random criss-crossing fault lines to create the mesas and canyons. This patch of chaotic terrain however suggests a different formation process.
The white dot in the rectangle on the overview map to the right marks the location. The inset shows this entire patch of chaos terrain, dubbed Ister Chaos, with the green box marking the area covered by the photo above. Unlike other chaos regions, Ister is a very distinct patch on a smooth relatively featureless plain. It appears almost as if the supporting ground beneath a flat structurally weak surface had suddenly been removed, causing that surface to collapse and break into pieces.
The caption suggests a flood of underground water could have removed that underlying material. As Ister Chaos is also in one of the several major outflow channels draining the large high elevation region where the Red Planet’s largest volcanoes are grouped, this theory makes some sense. The data we presently have suggests catastrophic floods from that high region shaped these outflow channels, though this theory is hardly proven.
The two-mile-wide deep crater in the lower left of the picture strengthens the theory. It has almost no rim, suggesting that the impact, which occurred after Ister was formed, hit relatively soft ground that was able to absorb the energy without throwing off much ejecta. Instead, the impact drilled downward, compacting the ground so that the floor of the crater sits well below the random surrounding canyons.
None of this theorizing of catastrophic floods eliminates the possibility that glacial activity formed this chaos, however. The available data is simply insufficient to come to any definitive conclusions.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
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