Drainage channel between two Martian hollows
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on April 28, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Dubbed a “terrain sample” by the camera team, it was likely taken not as part of any specific research project but to fill a gap in the camera’s schedule so as to maintain that camera’s proper temperature. When they have to do this, they try to pick interesting targets, though there is no guarantee the result will be very interesting.
In this case the camera snapped what appears to be a drainage channel between two deeper hollows. The channel sits about 100 feet above the western hollow and 260 feet above the eastern hollow. This makes some sense, as the overall drainage in this region is going from the west to the east, and then to the north.
The white dot in the inset on the overview map marks the location. This region of Mars is somewhat baffling in its geology, as it has many features that demand catastrophic floods, on a planet where no reasonable model has yet explained the possibility of liquid flowing water ever existing.
Note also the drainage channel from Aram Chaos to the east into Ares Vallis. Whatever floods occurred here tended to go from the west to the east, creating these connecting channels.
That the channel in the picture above sits 100 feet higher than the western hollow suggests that this hollow was once filled with water, either as liquid or ice, and the drainage was the overflow. As this is near the equator no near surface ice presently exists. We are looking at the visible evidence of geological events in the far past.
And though I am no geologist, I still can’t help wondering if glacial activity might have created the Martian geology that we Earthlings, from a planet covered 70% by liquid water, think was formed by flowing water. The fact that orbital images in the past decade have shown glacial and ice features everyone on Mars above 30 degrees latitude strengthens my feeling that this hypothesis might carry weight.
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.
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4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on April 28, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Dubbed a “terrain sample” by the camera team, it was likely taken not as part of any specific research project but to fill a gap in the camera’s schedule so as to maintain that camera’s proper temperature. When they have to do this, they try to pick interesting targets, though there is no guarantee the result will be very interesting.
In this case the camera snapped what appears to be a drainage channel between two deeper hollows. The channel sits about 100 feet above the western hollow and 260 feet above the eastern hollow. This makes some sense, as the overall drainage in this region is going from the west to the east, and then to the north.
The white dot in the inset on the overview map marks the location. This region of Mars is somewhat baffling in its geology, as it has many features that demand catastrophic floods, on a planet where no reasonable model has yet explained the possibility of liquid flowing water ever existing.
Note also the drainage channel from Aram Chaos to the east into Ares Vallis. Whatever floods occurred here tended to go from the west to the east, creating these connecting channels.
That the channel in the picture above sits 100 feet higher than the western hollow suggests that this hollow was once filled with water, either as liquid or ice, and the drainage was the overflow. As this is near the equator no near surface ice presently exists. We are looking at the visible evidence of geological events in the far past.
And though I am no geologist, I still can’t help wondering if glacial activity might have created the Martian geology that we Earthlings, from a planet covered 70% by liquid water, think was formed by flowing water. The fact that orbital images in the past decade have shown glacial and ice features everyone on Mars above 30 degrees latitude strengthens my feeling that this hypothesis might carry weight.
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.
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