Strange terrain southwest of Jezero Crater
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on June 16, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what the scientists have merely label “landforms.”
I instead call them strange. Clearly we are seeing exposed layering that surrounds the mesa in the middle of the image. This in turn suggests that the mesa top was once the surface of this whole region, and that region had been formed by the repeated placement of multiple sedimentary layers. Then, over time the surrounding terrain was eroded away, exposing those underlying layers.
Even so, some of the parallel lines do not appear to be layers, but striations etched into the ground. To get a better look, the white box marks the area covered by a full resolution close-up below.
I have enhanced the contrast to bring out the details. The downward grade should be to the northeast, but as you can see, in many places there does not appear to be any downward grade at all. Instead, we appear to be looking at a series of parallel lines, alternating light and dark.
If there is little or no grade, this could mean that at those locations the layers are actually almost vertical, so that we are looking down at their exposed ends. Under this hypothesis, the layers have mostly eroded equally, but the slight differences in their density has caused some to be slightly more resistant than others. This theory is strengthened by the shadows. Because the sunlight is coming from the west, the contrast between the lines oriented north-south in the lower right is greater. The lighter lines, likely ridges, stick up slightly, casting shadows on the adjacent lower rifts to the east. The contrast is less pronounced in the lines in the middle of the image, oriented mostly east-west, because the sunlight is reaching the bottoms of both the high and low lines.
The black dot on the overview map to the right tells us where this image is located on Mars, about fifty miles to the southwest of Jezero Crater where Perseverance is roving, and about 250 miles northeast of the caldera of the shield volcano Syrtis Major.
Orbital images and data has revealed that the region to the west of Jezero is extremely varied, with many minerals and strange formations not unlike today’s cool image. Though it is unlikely that Perseverance will ever reach this spot, there are numerous similar features much closer to the Jezero in this western region that the rover will surely reach in the coming years.
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:
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Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on June 16, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what the scientists have merely label “landforms.”
I instead call them strange. Clearly we are seeing exposed layering that surrounds the mesa in the middle of the image. This in turn suggests that the mesa top was once the surface of this whole region, and that region had been formed by the repeated placement of multiple sedimentary layers. Then, over time the surrounding terrain was eroded away, exposing those underlying layers.
Even so, some of the parallel lines do not appear to be layers, but striations etched into the ground. To get a better look, the white box marks the area covered by a full resolution close-up below.
I have enhanced the contrast to bring out the details. The downward grade should be to the northeast, but as you can see, in many places there does not appear to be any downward grade at all. Instead, we appear to be looking at a series of parallel lines, alternating light and dark.
If there is little or no grade, this could mean that at those locations the layers are actually almost vertical, so that we are looking down at their exposed ends. Under this hypothesis, the layers have mostly eroded equally, but the slight differences in their density has caused some to be slightly more resistant than others. This theory is strengthened by the shadows. Because the sunlight is coming from the west, the contrast between the lines oriented north-south in the lower right is greater. The lighter lines, likely ridges, stick up slightly, casting shadows on the adjacent lower rifts to the east. The contrast is less pronounced in the lines in the middle of the image, oriented mostly east-west, because the sunlight is reaching the bottoms of both the high and low lines.
The black dot on the overview map to the right tells us where this image is located on Mars, about fifty miles to the southwest of Jezero Crater where Perseverance is roving, and about 250 miles northeast of the caldera of the shield volcano Syrtis Major.
Orbital images and data has revealed that the region to the west of Jezero is extremely varied, with many minerals and strange formations not unlike today’s cool image. Though it is unlikely that Perseverance will ever reach this spot, there are numerous similar features much closer to the Jezero in this western region that the rover will surely reach in the coming years.
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.
Looks like sedimentary strata, conformable with the ridge to the ‘north’. Would be very helpful to have stereopair photos of these Martian features. As it is, we really don’t have a sense of elevation change. We can hope to have that capability some day . . .