A clue to the Martian history of volcanic eruptions
Click for full image.
Anyone who has taken even a single glance at a map of Mars cannot help but recognize that the red planet was once engulfed with repeated gigantic volcanic eruptions able to build numerous volcanoes larger than anything seen anywhere else in the solar system.
The cool image to the right, rotated, cropped, and enlarged to post here, provides a clue into those past eruptions, now thought to have been active for more than several billion years, with the most recent large activity ending several tens of millions of years ago. The photo was taken on May 7, 2021 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and shows just one tiny portion of the vast Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest thick volcanic ash deposit on Mars, about the size of India and what scientists think is the source of most of the planet’s dust.
What makes this picture interesting are the dark layers in the lower hollows. They indicate that this deposit was placed down in multiple eruptions, some of which produced material that appears dark blue in MRO images, and suggest that eruption was different than previous and subsequent eruptions.
The white cross on the overview map below notes the location of this picture in the Medusae Fossae Formation.
On MRO images, red sugguts dust, while dark blue suggests coarse material, either large-grained sand or rocks. Thus, this dark layer suggests the eruption produced larger material, requiring a more powerful blast to fling that material into the sky.
The larger particles in the lower layers could also mean that over time, the pressure from overlying layers has squeezed this layer’s volcanic dust into larger particles. That the squeezing is so specific to this layer still suggests that the eruptions that produced it were different.
That’s about all I, an amateur scientist, can glean from this image. I suspect the professionals can glean more, but I also suspect they will be making their own guesses, though based on far greater knowledge.
Either way, the image illustrates that the era of volcanism on Mars was long and vast. It is difficult to imagine what the planet was like when these volcanoes were active. It certainly wasn’t the relatively quiet place we see today.
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.
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3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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Click for full image.
Anyone who has taken even a single glance at a map of Mars cannot help but recognize that the red planet was once engulfed with repeated gigantic volcanic eruptions able to build numerous volcanoes larger than anything seen anywhere else in the solar system.
The cool image to the right, rotated, cropped, and enlarged to post here, provides a clue into those past eruptions, now thought to have been active for more than several billion years, with the most recent large activity ending several tens of millions of years ago. The photo was taken on May 7, 2021 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and shows just one tiny portion of the vast Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest thick volcanic ash deposit on Mars, about the size of India and what scientists think is the source of most of the planet’s dust.
What makes this picture interesting are the dark layers in the lower hollows. They indicate that this deposit was placed down in multiple eruptions, some of which produced material that appears dark blue in MRO images, and suggest that eruption was different than previous and subsequent eruptions.
The white cross on the overview map below notes the location of this picture in the Medusae Fossae Formation.
On MRO images, red sugguts dust, while dark blue suggests coarse material, either large-grained sand or rocks. Thus, this dark layer suggests the eruption produced larger material, requiring a more powerful blast to fling that material into the sky.
The larger particles in the lower layers could also mean that over time, the pressure from overlying layers has squeezed this layer’s volcanic dust into larger particles. That the squeezing is so specific to this layer still suggests that the eruptions that produced it were different.
That’s about all I, an amateur scientist, can glean from this image. I suspect the professionals can glean more, but I also suspect they will be making their own guesses, though based on far greater knowledge.
Either way, the image illustrates that the era of volcanism on Mars was long and vast. It is difficult to imagine what the planet was like when these volcanoes were active. It certainly wasn’t the relatively quiet place we see today.
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.
But are the schools there good?
Appreciate the information. Mars is a wonderful place! For a geologist; volcanoes and glaciers and ice, oh my! Botanists and the like may not be so enthralled. It does seem like Mars has a higher percentage of volcanic terraforming than, say, Earth. And I live in the American West: nothing but volcanic activity, here. Just curious why Mars seems to have a planetary thyroid condition.
“The Glacier growing inside Mount St. Helens’ Crater”
(2004)
https://youtu.be/L2ivI-WIunc
13:30