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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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