Meandering channel inside a larger glacial-filled valley
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on October 9, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The scientists label this “Channel in North Warrego Valles,” referring to the meandering channel on the left side of the picture. Note the stippled look of the surrounding terrain. This surface appears to be brain terrain, an as-yet unexplained feature on Mars that is always associated with near-surface ice features.
This location is at 40 degrees south latitude, placing it in the mid-latitudes where lots of glacial features are often found on Mars. Thus, it shouldn’t be surprising to find at this location brain terrain, or a meandering channel. The location however is a bit unusual, and reinforces once again that there is a lot of near-surface on Mars, readily available, as long as you are above 30 degrees latitude north or south.
The small box on the overview map to the right marks this location, inside the mountainous region dubbed Warrego Valles. In the inset the box marks the area covered by the picture above. The arrow indicates the downhill grade.
Warrego is at a much higher elevation than most of the Martian mid-latitudes, inside the Tharsis Bulge where Mars’ biggest volcanoes formed. Yet even here there appears to be near-surface glacial features. The unnamed 10-mile-wide crater to the south appears filled with glacial debris, and the larger channel that appears to flow down from it appears filled as well. The tiny channel in the picture above appears almost like runoff on top of the glacier, caused by some small flow independent of the larger glacier. Imagine ice sublimating just below the surface, with the gas eventually breaking out to form this channel.
Regardless, today’s cool image suggests that — unlike Earth — altitude is less important for finding ice on Mars than latitude. As long as you get away from the dry tropics, you will likely find near surface ice in many places, no matter high or low up you are.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
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Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on October 9, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The scientists label this “Channel in North Warrego Valles,” referring to the meandering channel on the left side of the picture. Note the stippled look of the surrounding terrain. This surface appears to be brain terrain, an as-yet unexplained feature on Mars that is always associated with near-surface ice features.
This location is at 40 degrees south latitude, placing it in the mid-latitudes where lots of glacial features are often found on Mars. Thus, it shouldn’t be surprising to find at this location brain terrain, or a meandering channel. The location however is a bit unusual, and reinforces once again that there is a lot of near-surface on Mars, readily available, as long as you are above 30 degrees latitude north or south.
The small box on the overview map to the right marks this location, inside the mountainous region dubbed Warrego Valles. In the inset the box marks the area covered by the picture above. The arrow indicates the downhill grade.
Warrego is at a much higher elevation than most of the Martian mid-latitudes, inside the Tharsis Bulge where Mars’ biggest volcanoes formed. Yet even here there appears to be near-surface glacial features. The unnamed 10-mile-wide crater to the south appears filled with glacial debris, and the larger channel that appears to flow down from it appears filled as well. The tiny channel in the picture above appears almost like runoff on top of the glacier, caused by some small flow independent of the larger glacier. Imagine ice sublimating just below the surface, with the gas eventually breaking out to form this channel.
Regardless, today’s cool image suggests that — unlike Earth — altitude is less important for finding ice on Mars than latitude. As long as you get away from the dry tropics, you will likely find near surface ice in many places, no matter high or low up you are.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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 or subscription:
4. 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.
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