Terraced serrated layered mesas on Mars
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on November 19, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows a collection of terraced mesas covered with dust of a variety of colors.
The bluish colors suggest exposed bedrock, while the different shades of tan suggest areas covered by dust and volcanic ash. That the tan areas are likely dust is strengthened in that it is found between and on these rough mesas, where dunes are also seen. The dust gets blown in but gets trapped there.
The tan colors however could also indicate different types of bedrock, especially because different terraces seem to be of different shades. We will need more data to determine which, or whether this is a combination of all these geological processes.
The white dot near the center of the overview map on the right marks the location of these terraced mesas, in Arabia Terra, the largest transitional region on Mars between the northern lowland plains and the southern cratered highlands.
The largest curving mesa in this picture hints at another of the more than 10,000 fossilized rivers that orbital pictures have identified in Arabia Terra. The riverbed is compacted down, making it more dense than the adjacent terrain. Over time that adjacent terrain erodes away, leaving a meandering ridge.
The other nearby mesas in this picture however speak against a fossilized river. Instead something else caused this terrain to be more resistant to erosion. Possibly an impact took place here, and the terraces are the remains of the crater floor, now eroded to leave these mesas roughly forming a concentric pattern. Or maybe this is ancient and now very eroded chaos terrain, where intersecting canyons are carved away by water-ice processes.
A lot of such terraced mesas are found in this area of Arabia Terra. See for just one other example this July 2022 cool image, located not far to the south of today’s terraces.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
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, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on November 19, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows a collection of terraced mesas covered with dust of a variety of colors.
The bluish colors suggest exposed bedrock, while the different shades of tan suggest areas covered by dust and volcanic ash. That the tan areas are likely dust is strengthened in that it is found between and on these rough mesas, where dunes are also seen. The dust gets blown in but gets trapped there.
The tan colors however could also indicate different types of bedrock, especially because different terraces seem to be of different shades. We will need more data to determine which, or whether this is a combination of all these geological processes.
The white dot near the center of the overview map on the right marks the location of these terraced mesas, in Arabia Terra, the largest transitional region on Mars between the northern lowland plains and the southern cratered highlands.
The largest curving mesa in this picture hints at another of the more than 10,000 fossilized rivers that orbital pictures have identified in Arabia Terra. The riverbed is compacted down, making it more dense than the adjacent terrain. Over time that adjacent terrain erodes away, leaving a meandering ridge.
The other nearby mesas in this picture however speak against a fossilized river. Instead something else caused this terrain to be more resistant to erosion. Possibly an impact took place here, and the terraces are the remains of the crater floor, now eroded to leave these mesas roughly forming a concentric pattern. Or maybe this is ancient and now very eroded chaos terrain, where intersecting canyons are carved away by water-ice processes.
A lot of such terraced mesas are found in this area of Arabia Terra. See for just one other example this July 2022 cool image, located not far to the south of today’s terraces.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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
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