Stucco on Mars
Click for full image.
As a break from Wuhan flu madness I give you another cool image, cropped and reduced to post here, taken by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). I call this stucco on Mars because that is exactly what it looks like. It is as someone laid down a layer of damp concrete and then ran over it roughly with a trowel to raise the knobs scattered across the surface.
The uncaptioned MRO image calls this “Aligned Mounds with Broad Summit Pits”. Those aligned mounds run across the top of the image. I suspect they are pedestal craters, left over because the impact had packed and hardened the crater so that it resisted erosion as the surrounding terrain was worn away.
The two insets, posted below at full resolutoin, focus on one of those pedestal craters as well as the distinct mesa at the bottom of the photo.
This particular mound is intriguing because it seems to really be a cluster of four craters packed close together. One of smaller craters even seems to have a central peak. If these were caused by an impact, it was likely a single event, such as multiple pieces hitting at the same time, either from a shattered asteroid or from secondary ejecta from a nearby larger impact.
If these pits were not made by impact, I don’t have a clue what caused them. Though this certainly doesn’t look like a typical volcanic feature pushed up from below, it certainly could be, considering the different gravity and chemistry of Mars. In that alien environment it would be a big mistake to expect such things to look just like they do on Earth.
The mesa near the bottom of the photograph, shown to the right, provides evidence that considerable surface material here has eroded away. That the top of the mesa appears much higher than the top of the mounds just adds a bit of new complexity to this geology that needs explaining.
In fact, I wish I had some information on the actual height of this mesa. It appears we are looking straight down upon it, so it is difficult to estimate a height. The impression given however is of some considerable height. From the side this straight-sided pinnacle should look quite impressive.
The map to the right gives us some context. This stucco is located in the southern highlands, near the transition zone down to the northern lowlands, and about 800 miles to the west of Jezero Crater, where the rover Perseverance will hopefully land successfully in 2021.
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
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c/o Robert Zimmerman
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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.
Click for full image.
As a break from Wuhan flu madness I give you another cool image, cropped and reduced to post here, taken by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). I call this stucco on Mars because that is exactly what it looks like. It is as someone laid down a layer of damp concrete and then ran over it roughly with a trowel to raise the knobs scattered across the surface.
The uncaptioned MRO image calls this “Aligned Mounds with Broad Summit Pits”. Those aligned mounds run across the top of the image. I suspect they are pedestal craters, left over because the impact had packed and hardened the crater so that it resisted erosion as the surrounding terrain was worn away.
The two insets, posted below at full resolutoin, focus on one of those pedestal craters as well as the distinct mesa at the bottom of the photo.
This particular mound is intriguing because it seems to really be a cluster of four craters packed close together. One of smaller craters even seems to have a central peak. If these were caused by an impact, it was likely a single event, such as multiple pieces hitting at the same time, either from a shattered asteroid or from secondary ejecta from a nearby larger impact.
If these pits were not made by impact, I don’t have a clue what caused them. Though this certainly doesn’t look like a typical volcanic feature pushed up from below, it certainly could be, considering the different gravity and chemistry of Mars. In that alien environment it would be a big mistake to expect such things to look just like they do on Earth.
The mesa near the bottom of the photograph, shown to the right, provides evidence that considerable surface material here has eroded away. That the top of the mesa appears much higher than the top of the mounds just adds a bit of new complexity to this geology that needs explaining.
In fact, I wish I had some information on the actual height of this mesa. It appears we are looking straight down upon it, so it is difficult to estimate a height. The impression given however is of some considerable height. From the side this straight-sided pinnacle should look quite impressive.
The map to the right gives us some context. This stucco is located in the southern highlands, near the transition zone down to the northern lowlands, and about 800 miles to the west of Jezero Crater, where the rover Perseverance will hopefully land successfully in 2021.
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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