On the edge of Mars’ giant volcanic flood plain
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on September 30, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Uncaptioned, it shows what the science team labels “Flows and pitted material in Terra Sirenum.”
Downhill is to the southeast, which means the pitted material forms some sort of filled terrain, with the surface eroded similarly everywhere. At a latitude of 32 degrees south, these flows could conceivably be glacial features. Are they?
A wider look might help answer that question. Below is a photo taken by MRO’s context camera, cropped and reduced to post here.
Click for full image.
The white box indicates the area covered by the first image above.
It appears that this flow feeds into a very vast sea of pitted material, which extends far beyond even this image (as can be seen by this adjacent context camera photo).
Is it possible this sea is all glacial? It seems unlikely. At this latitude any glacial features seen are never as pervasive or widespread as this. By 30 degrees latitude Mars appears to be drying out, and the glacial features are beginning to fade. In fact, scientists have seen almost no such features closer to the equator.
Furthermore, look at the craters both in this sea and outside it. They look somewhat the same, as if they were impacts in solid bedrock. Impacts on icy ground look far different, almost like splats.
So, what are we looking at?
The wide overview map to the right might provide an answer. The white cross near the bottom center is the location of today’s image. It is apparently located at the very edge of the vast shield produced by the volcanoes that form what scientists have dubbed the Tharsis bulge on Mars.
In other words, this sea is likely a lava plain, and this particular spot is its shoreline. Instead of the flow going downhill into the sea, what we are looking at is a flow pushing into a break in the rim of the crater on the ridge. This interpretation also helps explain the nature of the flow in that crater. It seems to stop suddenly, as if the flow froze suddenly. Its nature seems to fit frozen lava better than frozen water.
While there still could be ice and glaciers scattered through this terrain, they do not appear to be the dominant feature. At least, that’s my guess. What’s yours?
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.
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on September 30, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Uncaptioned, it shows what the science team labels “Flows and pitted material in Terra Sirenum.”
Downhill is to the southeast, which means the pitted material forms some sort of filled terrain, with the surface eroded similarly everywhere. At a latitude of 32 degrees south, these flows could conceivably be glacial features. Are they?
A wider look might help answer that question. Below is a photo taken by MRO’s context camera, cropped and reduced to post here.
Click for full image.
The white box indicates the area covered by the first image above.
It appears that this flow feeds into a very vast sea of pitted material, which extends far beyond even this image (as can be seen by this adjacent context camera photo).
Is it possible this sea is all glacial? It seems unlikely. At this latitude any glacial features seen are never as pervasive or widespread as this. By 30 degrees latitude Mars appears to be drying out, and the glacial features are beginning to fade. In fact, scientists have seen almost no such features closer to the equator.
Furthermore, look at the craters both in this sea and outside it. They look somewhat the same, as if they were impacts in solid bedrock. Impacts on icy ground look far different, almost like splats.
So, what are we looking at?
The wide overview map to the right might provide an answer. The white cross near the bottom center is the location of today’s image. It is apparently located at the very edge of the vast shield produced by the volcanoes that form what scientists have dubbed the Tharsis bulge on Mars.
In other words, this sea is likely a lava plain, and this particular spot is its shoreline. Instead of the flow going downhill into the sea, what we are looking at is a flow pushing into a break in the rim of the crater on the ridge. This interpretation also helps explain the nature of the flow in that crater. It seems to stop suddenly, as if the flow froze suddenly. Its nature seems to fit frozen lava better than frozen water.
While there still could be ice and glaciers scattered through this terrain, they do not appear to be the dominant feature. At least, that’s my guess. What’s yours?
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.
I can only agree with your analysis here Bob… And I’m getting more and more convinced regarding your galacial theory of water on Mars. There is no doubting that 2 or 3 billion years ago it would have been interesting to see what was occurring there, it will also be interesting to see the fossils the next generation of rovers find…. We all wish! Mars is a very alien planet, and we still have very much to learn about its history… Roll on February, and fingers crossed for every mission arriving at the red planet!
I think it is super-convenient we have a ‘practice’ planet right next door.