Mars’ fast moving gigantic lava floods
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on December 12, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The science team labels this a “crater interrupted by flow.” And what a flow! This unnamed 1.4-mile wide crater was not only filled and partly buried by the flow, that flow was so strong it cut through the crater’s rim at two points, refusing to let that rim block it in any way.
The flow in this case is lava, coming down from the Tharsis Bulge where four of Mars’ biggest volcanoes arose. And that flow was quite vast, as the nearest of those volcanoes, Arsia Mons, is almost 800 miles away. Because of Mars’ relative light gravity, about 39% that of Earth’s, lava on Mars can flow across large distances in a very short time. It might have only taken a few weeks for that flow to cover that 800 miles.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location. The arrow in the inset indicates the downhill grade. This particular crater is on the outer edge of the Tharsis Bulge, which is several thousand miles across. This location however is hardly at the end of the bulge’s extensive lava flows. Note the mountain arc at the top of the inset. That marks the northern rim of a 15-mile-wide crater that is now half buried by that lava.
In fact, that crater illustrates the changing terrain. In this particular region the lava flow was beginning to peter out, no longer be strong enough to completely bury things. Thus, to the southwest more and more craters become visible though many are as buried as the crater in the inset.
In the case of the picture above, the flow itself was guided by the long linear fracture line that is part of the 3,500-mile-long fault line that cuts across three of Mars’ biggest volcanoes and is likely the reason they grew there in the first place.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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, and reduced to post here, was taken on December 12, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The science team labels this a “crater interrupted by flow.” And what a flow! This unnamed 1.4-mile wide crater was not only filled and partly buried by the flow, that flow was so strong it cut through the crater’s rim at two points, refusing to let that rim block it in any way.
The flow in this case is lava, coming down from the Tharsis Bulge where four of Mars’ biggest volcanoes arose. And that flow was quite vast, as the nearest of those volcanoes, Arsia Mons, is almost 800 miles away. Because of Mars’ relative light gravity, about 39% that of Earth’s, lava on Mars can flow across large distances in a very short time. It might have only taken a few weeks for that flow to cover that 800 miles.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location. The arrow in the inset indicates the downhill grade. This particular crater is on the outer edge of the Tharsis Bulge, which is several thousand miles across. This location however is hardly at the end of the bulge’s extensive lava flows. Note the mountain arc at the top of the inset. That marks the northern rim of a 15-mile-wide crater that is now half buried by that lava.
In fact, that crater illustrates the changing terrain. In this particular region the lava flow was beginning to peter out, no longer be strong enough to completely bury things. Thus, to the southwest more and more craters become visible though many are as buried as the crater in the inset.
In the case of the picture above, the flow itself was guided by the long linear fracture line that is part of the 3,500-mile-long fault line that cuts across three of Mars’ biggest volcanoes and is likely the reason they grew there in the first place.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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