A Martian sinkhole
Cool image time! The image on the right, reduced to display here, was taken by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and shows a very intriguing drainage pattern with several different meandering washes apparently flowing into what clearly looks like a sinkhole. As noted at the MRO website,
The drainages in this image are part of Hebrus Valles, an outflow channel system likely formed by catastrophic floods.
Hebrus Valles is located in the plains of the Northern lowlands, just west of the Elysium volcanic region. Individual channels range from several hundred meters to several kilometers wide and form multi-threaded (anastamosing) patterns. Separating the channels are streamlined forms, whose tails point downstream and indicate that channel flow is to the north. The channels seemingly terminate in an elongated pit that is approximately 1875 meters long and 1125 meters wide. Using the shadow that the wall has cast on the floor of the pit, we can estimate that the pit is nearly 500 meters deep.
To better see the shadowed floor of the sinkhole, I have cropped the full resolution image to focus on the pit itself, and increased the brightness significantly as shown on the right.
There does not appear to be any openings in the sinkhole floor into which water could drain, a lack that can be explained several ways. First, it is not unusual on Earth for sinkholes to have floors like this, without any obvious drainage opening, and for the water to still sink easily into the sand and rocks. Second, even if the drainage here is completely blocked, this could merely mean that it has been a very long time since water flowed here. When similar drainage systems dry up here on Earth, they fill with sediment and debris over time, so that all access to the cave below gets blocked. Many of the cave dig projects that I have been involved in over the last few decades were aimed precisely at digging out this debris to get access to the virgin cave below.
Either way, this Martian drainage indicates the presence of underground hydrology. Or to put it another way, water that future colonists can drill down into and access.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Cool image time! The image on the right, reduced to display here, was taken by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and shows a very intriguing drainage pattern with several different meandering washes apparently flowing into what clearly looks like a sinkhole. As noted at the MRO website,
The drainages in this image are part of Hebrus Valles, an outflow channel system likely formed by catastrophic floods.
Hebrus Valles is located in the plains of the Northern lowlands, just west of the Elysium volcanic region. Individual channels range from several hundred meters to several kilometers wide and form multi-threaded (anastamosing) patterns. Separating the channels are streamlined forms, whose tails point downstream and indicate that channel flow is to the north. The channels seemingly terminate in an elongated pit that is approximately 1875 meters long and 1125 meters wide. Using the shadow that the wall has cast on the floor of the pit, we can estimate that the pit is nearly 500 meters deep.
To better see the shadowed floor of the sinkhole, I have cropped the full resolution image to focus on the pit itself, and increased the brightness significantly as shown on the right.
There does not appear to be any openings in the sinkhole floor into which water could drain, a lack that can be explained several ways. First, it is not unusual on Earth for sinkholes to have floors like this, without any obvious drainage opening, and for the water to still sink easily into the sand and rocks. Second, even if the drainage here is completely blocked, this could merely mean that it has been a very long time since water flowed here. When similar drainage systems dry up here on Earth, they fill with sediment and debris over time, so that all access to the cave below gets blocked. Many of the cave dig projects that I have been involved in over the last few decades were aimed precisely at digging out this debris to get access to the virgin cave below.
Either way, this Martian drainage indicates the presence of underground hydrology. Or to put it another way, water that future colonists can drill down into and access.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Mr. Zimmerman: May you present an article, which gives a most recent status what present science believes about the whole “water story” at and of Mars, regarding its complete history up to present? Thank you in advance?
If you are asking me to write this, I may. However, if you want a quick idea of the present state of knowledge, simply use the search box on Behind the Black and type in “Mars water”. You will have hours of reading of the many many posts I have made on this subject over the years, and will soon get a pretty good idea of where our knowledge stands.
To sum it up quickly: We know liquid water once flowed on Mars. We do not know exactly when, or how long, or how deep. Nor do we really understand all the factors that caused that water to go away. Moreover, we do not know yet exactly how much of that water remains there, below the surface.
@Mr. Zimmerman: Thank you for short up-summing. Yes, I am asking you to do that writing and implementing your expertise that you gained all over the years. Thanks in advance.
We do not know exactly when, or how long, or how deep.
Well, my question was going to be if there was any dating on these water events.
In some cases you can see they flow around impact craters, so that would help if we had some people on the surface to do geology. Also, depending on when various flooding events took place, the atmosphere might not have allowed for liquid water to stick around for very long.
Either way, this Martian drainage indicates the presence of underground hydrology.
Yes. The megaflood(s) appear to have upwelled from beneath the surface of Mars.
Question: have you done Buckskin Gulch?
I’m guessing you must live in the South West judging from your canyoneering posts, we should get together one of these days for some desert adventure.
Me? I worked with Tom Meyer on the Mars Underground, then I was a founding member of Mars Society. Engineer, dirtbiker, cannoneer -er and hope to god I can retire one of these days!
SE Jones