More sightseeing in Valles Marineris on Mars
Click for original image.
The opportunity to see more mind-blowing examples of spectacular views on Mars compels me to post another great view of a mesatop within Valles Marineris, the biggest known canyon in the solar system. The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on May 14, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows an 800-foot-high mesa with two points at its end, the cliff wall below highlighted by numerous layers, many alternating between light and dark material.
The erosion features on the top of the mesa suggests some flow down its middle and into the gap between its two end points. This is the dry equatorial region of Mars, so no near surface water is presently found. In the far past maybe ice, or theorized catastrophic floods of water, caused this erosion.
The black dot on the overview map to the right, in the southwestern edge of Melas Chasma, marks this location within Valles Marineris.
Once again, the scale here is hard to fathom. This top of this mesa quickly rises 800 feet from the flat areas at its base. Yet, the south rim of Valles Marineris still sits about 16,500 feet higher up, eleven miles to the south, while the canyon’s floor is about 6,000 feet lower down, about fifteen miles to the north. The nearest point of the canyon’s northern rim is about 110 miles away.
Standing on the point of this mesa you would be lost within a canyon whose limits would only be faintly visible, with the ground in-between filled with buttes, cliffs, canyons, layers, and endless geological features that would make even the most magnificent locations of the American southwest pale in wonder.
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.
The opportunity to see more mind-blowing examples of spectacular views on Mars compels me to post another great view of a mesatop within Valles Marineris, the biggest known canyon in the solar system. The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on May 14, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows an 800-foot-high mesa with two points at its end, the cliff wall below highlighted by numerous layers, many alternating between light and dark material.
The erosion features on the top of the mesa suggests some flow down its middle and into the gap between its two end points. This is the dry equatorial region of Mars, so no near surface water is presently found. In the far past maybe ice, or theorized catastrophic floods of water, caused this erosion.
The black dot on the overview map to the right, in the southwestern edge of Melas Chasma, marks this location within Valles Marineris.
Once again, the scale here is hard to fathom. This top of this mesa quickly rises 800 feet from the flat areas at its base. Yet, the south rim of Valles Marineris still sits about 16,500 feet higher up, eleven miles to the south, while the canyon’s floor is about 6,000 feet lower down, about fifteen miles to the north. The nearest point of the canyon’s northern rim is about 110 miles away.
Standing on the point of this mesa you would be lost within a canyon whose limits would only be faintly visible, with the ground in-between filled with buttes, cliffs, canyons, layers, and endless geological features that would make even the most magnificent locations of the American southwest pale in wonder.
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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