An avalanche in the West Virginia of Mars
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on June 27, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
I have cropped it to focus on this one hill, about 900 feet high (though the elevation data from MRO is somewhat uncertain at this resolution), because of that major landslide on its northern slopes. At some point in the past a major piece of the exposed bedrock at the top broke off and slide about halfway down the mountain, almost as a unit, settling on the alluvial fill that comprises the bottom half of the hill’s flanks.
The bedrock surrounding the peak is also of interest because of its gullies, all of which were created by downward flowing material. Was it ice? Water? Sand? Or maybe a combination of two or three? If water or ice was involved it was a very long time ago, as this location is in the dry equatorial regions of Mars. There is little known near-surface ice here.
The red dots on the overview map to the right mark this location, inside the section of Valles Marineris dubbed Eos Chasma. At this point the canyon is wide, about 250 miles across. Its floor is also very complex, with both channels and endless small hills — hence my allusion to West Virginia in the headline. As on Earth, when Mars is well colonized and has its own political conflicts, this region would be backwoods country, difficult to navigate and easy to hide in.
If you look at the original image you will see that these hills are surrounded by a mixture of sand, dust, and debris that all seem to be flowing to the east, either from the theorized catastrophic floods that some scientists believe caused Valles Marineris, or from the prevailing winds, or from both.
There is a lot of dust in the hollows between these hills, though its depth is unclear. It certainly appears to pile up sufficiently to appear to almost bury some of the smaller hills.
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, and reduced to post here, was taken on June 27, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
I have cropped it to focus on this one hill, about 900 feet high (though the elevation data from MRO is somewhat uncertain at this resolution), because of that major landslide on its northern slopes. At some point in the past a major piece of the exposed bedrock at the top broke off and slide about halfway down the mountain, almost as a unit, settling on the alluvial fill that comprises the bottom half of the hill’s flanks.
The bedrock surrounding the peak is also of interest because of its gullies, all of which were created by downward flowing material. Was it ice? Water? Sand? Or maybe a combination of two or three? If water or ice was involved it was a very long time ago, as this location is in the dry equatorial regions of Mars. There is little known near-surface ice here.
The red dots on the overview map to the right mark this location, inside the section of Valles Marineris dubbed Eos Chasma. At this point the canyon is wide, about 250 miles across. Its floor is also very complex, with both channels and endless small hills — hence my allusion to West Virginia in the headline. As on Earth, when Mars is well colonized and has its own political conflicts, this region would be backwoods country, difficult to navigate and easy to hide in.
If you look at the original image you will see that these hills are surrounded by a mixture of sand, dust, and debris that all seem to be flowing to the east, either from the theorized catastrophic floods that some scientists believe caused Valles Marineris, or from the prevailing winds, or from both.
There is a lot of dust in the hollows between these hills, though its depth is unclear. It certainly appears to pile up sufficiently to appear to almost bury some of the smaller hills.
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
A beautiful smooth landscape, a place on Mars you can open your vehicle up full throttle.
Future home of the Mars Valles Marineris Baja 2000 over land race.