Monument Valley on Mars
Click for full image.
Today’s cool image is located near the Martian equator, in the middle of Arabia Terra, the most extensive region of the transition zone between the low northern plains and the southern cratered highlands. Taken on May 9, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and cropped to post here, the photo shows some layered mesas surrounded by a terraced and scalloped terrain with dust filling the low spots.
This is likely to be a very dry place on Mars. At only 2 degrees north of the equator, the evidence so far suggests that if there is a buried ice table (like the water table on Earth), it will be much deeper than at higher latitudes. The terrain reflects this, looking reminiscent of Monument Valley in the American southwest. In fact, the satellite image below, which I grabbed from MapQuest, shows a typical mesa in Monument Valley.
Shown at about the same scale as the martian photo above, the similarities are striking. Both have layers, tall mesas, and dry terrain. The differences are also important. The Earth mesas show evidence of water erosion by their softened edges as well as the dry streambeds along the big mesa’s edges. On Earth there are trees in those dry streambeds. Earth also has dust, but no scalloped terrain, at least none visible at this scale.
Ironically, the cause of the erosion that created these mesas in both places is possibly quite similar, wind in recent eons but possibly water/ice far in the past, when the entire planet’s climate was different. For Mars this remains a guess.
The overview map to the right gives the larger context. The white cross is the location of these mesas. Arabia Terra is the large green region east of Chryse Planitia and Valles Marineris.
My guess that this location is dry comes not only because it is at the equator. It is also quite far from the northern lowlands and is very close to the cratered highlands. If an intermittent ocean in the northern lowlands once lapped against Arabia Terra, its shoreline ebbing and flowing as the Martian climate changed, that shoreline would have been far to the north and west of this location. Water and ice might have once been here, but that was likely a very very long time ago.
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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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.
Today’s cool image is located near the Martian equator, in the middle of Arabia Terra, the most extensive region of the transition zone between the low northern plains and the southern cratered highlands. Taken on May 9, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and cropped to post here, the photo shows some layered mesas surrounded by a terraced and scalloped terrain with dust filling the low spots.
This is likely to be a very dry place on Mars. At only 2 degrees north of the equator, the evidence so far suggests that if there is a buried ice table (like the water table on Earth), it will be much deeper than at higher latitudes. The terrain reflects this, looking reminiscent of Monument Valley in the American southwest. In fact, the satellite image below, which I grabbed from MapQuest, shows a typical mesa in Monument Valley.
Shown at about the same scale as the martian photo above, the similarities are striking. Both have layers, tall mesas, and dry terrain. The differences are also important. The Earth mesas show evidence of water erosion by their softened edges as well as the dry streambeds along the big mesa’s edges. On Earth there are trees in those dry streambeds. Earth also has dust, but no scalloped terrain, at least none visible at this scale.
Ironically, the cause of the erosion that created these mesas in both places is possibly quite similar, wind in recent eons but possibly water/ice far in the past, when the entire planet’s climate was different. For Mars this remains a guess.
The overview map to the right gives the larger context. The white cross is the location of these mesas. Arabia Terra is the large green region east of Chryse Planitia and Valles Marineris.
My guess that this location is dry comes not only because it is at the equator. It is also quite far from the northern lowlands and is very close to the cratered highlands. If an intermittent ocean in the northern lowlands once lapped against Arabia Terra, its shoreline ebbing and flowing as the Martian climate changed, that shoreline would have been far to the north and west of this location. Water and ice might have once been here, but that was likely a very very long time ago.
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.
Hi Bob,
Are there any estimates on the heights of these features on Mars?
Do you know the height of the feature shown on Earth’s Monument Valley?
Thanks
Chris: I am presently trying to get the software set up so that I can check heights, as you ask. Not there yet.
As for Monument Valley, the buttes range from 400 to 1000 feet in height. See here. I suspect the buttes at this location on Mars are comparable.
Thanks Bob
If you zoom in real tight on the channel between the bottom and middle mesa I think we could see Martian Gump lamenting that he’s tired now : )
I’d hike that!
Thank you Bob for your insights and analysis, I really enjoy reading and pondering the implications of everything in the universe beyond our amazing planet. I’ve had your site bookmarked for awhile (hat tip AoS) and have shared it with a few like minded friends. Those Martian dust devils…just wow. Regards
Doug