The cliff wall of ancient Martian lava channel
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on January 17, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) by the camera team not as part of any particular research project but in order to fill a gap in the camera’s schedule so as to maintain its proper temperature. In such cases the camera team tries to pick potentially interesting spots.
This cliff, about 1,100 feet high, is the north wall of a major volcano channel flowing across the Tharsis Bulge, the lava plains that surround Mars’ giant volcanoes. Located in the dry equatorial regions, there is no near surface ice here, but a lot of dust, much of it likely volcanic ash. In the full picture are several ancient craters, all of which are almost entirely buried by this dust and ash.
The cliff wall itself is made up of numerous layers, each representing a past volcanic flood lava event that covered this region with a new flow of material. These events occurred over more than a billion years.
The white dot just to the east of the Claritis Fossae mountain and fissure chain marks this channel’s location. When it was active it appears to have vented from Claritis Fossae and flowed to the northeast to eventually flood out into Syria Planum.
None of Mars’ volcanoes are active at this time, and have mostly been inactive for more than a billion years. Once however the planet’s atmosphere and surface was shaped by them, when they belched material into the air and on the surrounding terrain, covering hundreds and hundreds of miles over and over again with new layers.
The scale of this process is what makes it so fascinating. We don’t simply see one event, we see multiple layers signaling numerous equally massive lava flood events, over a very long time. Mars was once a very different place, but not the wet and warm place many imagine, but a volcanic hellhole that over time calmed down and cooled.
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, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on January 17, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) by the camera team not as part of any particular research project but in order to fill a gap in the camera’s schedule so as to maintain its proper temperature. In such cases the camera team tries to pick potentially interesting spots.
This cliff, about 1,100 feet high, is the north wall of a major volcano channel flowing across the Tharsis Bulge, the lava plains that surround Mars’ giant volcanoes. Located in the dry equatorial regions, there is no near surface ice here, but a lot of dust, much of it likely volcanic ash. In the full picture are several ancient craters, all of which are almost entirely buried by this dust and ash.
The cliff wall itself is made up of numerous layers, each representing a past volcanic flood lava event that covered this region with a new flow of material. These events occurred over more than a billion years.
The white dot just to the east of the Claritis Fossae mountain and fissure chain marks this channel’s location. When it was active it appears to have vented from Claritis Fossae and flowed to the northeast to eventually flood out into Syria Planum.
None of Mars’ volcanoes are active at this time, and have mostly been inactive for more than a billion years. Once however the planet’s atmosphere and surface was shaped by them, when they belched material into the air and on the surrounding terrain, covering hundreds and hundreds of miles over and over again with new layers.
The scale of this process is what makes it so fascinating. We don’t simply see one event, we see multiple layers signaling numerous equally massive lava flood events, over a very long time. Mars was once a very different place, but not the wet and warm place many imagine, but a volcanic hellhole that over time calmed down and cooled.
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
The photo of the lava channel reminds me of the lava flow just north of Ridgecrest, CA, right along highway 395. If you zoom into this map on Satellite view you can see a very similar view. https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=3f019085-e049-43c7-aa82-39ecd4abc1f7&cp=35.887014~-117.895614&lvl=14.562533&style=a&pi=0&v=2&sV=2&form=S00027