More Martian inverted rivers?
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on June 23, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what the scientists label “branching deposits,” two wiggling ridgelines with other ridges branching off from them.
What caused this? On Mars there are many such meandering ridges, all of which look like rivers that have positive relief, the opposite of what you would expect. The theory is that these weaving ridges were once canyons where either water or ice once flowed, compacting the streambed so that it was more dense than the surrounding terrain. When that terrain eroded away it left that streambed behind, as a raised meandering ridge.
That answer however might not apply here.
On the overview map to the right the white dot about 500 miles east of Curiosity marks this location, on the edge of the Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest deposit of volcanic ash on Mars and thought to be the source of most of the planet’s dust. The picture itself shows a lot of evidence of this ash, with ripple dune fields filling all the low spots between ridges.
It therefore appears that these ridges could very well be made of that volcanic ash, and thus might have formed from volcanic processes. For example, maybe we are looking at the bed of a lava tube or rill, and it was lava, not water or ice, that compacted the floor so that it resisted erosion.
Why the ridgetops are so flat remains unexplained, though this might be indicating the contact between an ash layer that was easily blown away and a more compacted lower layer.
Two other cool images near this spot show similar ridges (see here and here), both of which also had features that suggested that ash was part of their formation process.
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.
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Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on June 23, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what the scientists label “branching deposits,” two wiggling ridgelines with other ridges branching off from them.
What caused this? On Mars there are many such meandering ridges, all of which look like rivers that have positive relief, the opposite of what you would expect. The theory is that these weaving ridges were once canyons where either water or ice once flowed, compacting the streambed so that it was more dense than the surrounding terrain. When that terrain eroded away it left that streambed behind, as a raised meandering ridge.
That answer however might not apply here.
On the overview map to the right the white dot about 500 miles east of Curiosity marks this location, on the edge of the Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest deposit of volcanic ash on Mars and thought to be the source of most of the planet’s dust. The picture itself shows a lot of evidence of this ash, with ripple dune fields filling all the low spots between ridges.
It therefore appears that these ridges could very well be made of that volcanic ash, and thus might have formed from volcanic processes. For example, maybe we are looking at the bed of a lava tube or rill, and it was lava, not water or ice, that compacted the floor so that it resisted erosion.
Why the ridgetops are so flat remains unexplained, though this might be indicating the contact between an ash layer that was easily blown away and a more compacted lower layer.
Two other cool images near this spot show similar ridges (see here and here), both of which also had features that suggested that ash was part of their formation process.
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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