Buried ridges at the bottom of a Martian abyss
Click for full image.
Today’s cool image could be labeled a “What the heck?!” photo, as the origin of its most distinct feature is utterly baffling. The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on June 18, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and shows what look like a collection of meandering ridges peeking out from a terrain covered by thick dust.
The scientists label this dust-covered ground, as well as the ripple dunes to the south in the full image, “sand sheets.” Without question, the ground here seems to resemble a Sahara-like terrain. It is utterly featureless, other than the few bedrock features that poke up out of that sand. In the full image some peaks stick out, but it the meandering ridges in this section that are most intriguing. They are reminiscent of rimstone dams in caves, but what formed them remains baffling, since cave rimstone dams are formed by the interaction of limestone and water, and there is absolutely no evidence of any near surface ice at this location in the dry equatorial regions of Mars.
All the ridges signify is a buried terrain formed in some inexplicable way.
On the overview map above the white dot near the center and inside the chasm dubbed Juventae marks this location. Juventae Chasma is deep, with walls that rise up 20,000 to 25,000 feet. Any dust that gets blown into it would get trapped there, since the thin Martian atmosphere would not be able to lift it back out. Thus it is not surprising that there is complex bedrock buried deeply under that sand.
Juventae also once again gives us a sense of scale. Though it is dwarfed by the giant Valles Marineris canyon to the south, its depth, three to five times deeper than the Grand Canyon, would make the widest and deepest part of that natural wonder of Earth appear to be no more than a small crack in the ground. If you stood on Juventae’s south rim, you would be able to look directly downward 20,000 feet at this point below. On Earth the only places where such a view is generally available is on the peaks of mountains. On Mars that view is available for more than 100 miles along Juventae’s south rim.
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
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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.
Click for full image.
Today’s cool image could be labeled a “What the heck?!” photo, as the origin of its most distinct feature is utterly baffling. The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on June 18, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and shows what look like a collection of meandering ridges peeking out from a terrain covered by thick dust.
The scientists label this dust-covered ground, as well as the ripple dunes to the south in the full image, “sand sheets.” Without question, the ground here seems to resemble a Sahara-like terrain. It is utterly featureless, other than the few bedrock features that poke up out of that sand. In the full image some peaks stick out, but it the meandering ridges in this section that are most intriguing. They are reminiscent of rimstone dams in caves, but what formed them remains baffling, since cave rimstone dams are formed by the interaction of limestone and water, and there is absolutely no evidence of any near surface ice at this location in the dry equatorial regions of Mars.
All the ridges signify is a buried terrain formed in some inexplicable way.
On the overview map above the white dot near the center and inside the chasm dubbed Juventae marks this location. Juventae Chasma is deep, with walls that rise up 20,000 to 25,000 feet. Any dust that gets blown into it would get trapped there, since the thin Martian atmosphere would not be able to lift it back out. Thus it is not surprising that there is complex bedrock buried deeply under that sand.
Juventae also once again gives us a sense of scale. Though it is dwarfed by the giant Valles Marineris canyon to the south, its depth, three to five times deeper than the Grand Canyon, would make the widest and deepest part of that natural wonder of Earth appear to be no more than a small crack in the ground. If you stood on Juventae’s south rim, you would be able to look directly downward 20,000 feet at this point below. On Earth the only places where such a view is generally available is on the peaks of mountains. On Mars that view is available for more than 100 miles along Juventae’s south rim.
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.
In the old days, that cropped photo would have provided months of fun Richard Hoagland interviews with Art Bell.
Mars is infinitely more interesting than the Moon.
Just send thousands of rovers, flying objects, sample retrieving devices to Mars.
The dark area at the top of the original picture is full of dust devil trails… More proof that dark spots generate the little devils.
In the expanded photo, see the near-perfectly-circular elevated “mesa” in the center-left of the upper part. Striking.