A cracking Martian glacier?
Click for entire image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped to post here, was taken on December 4, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
I have cropped it to show at full resolution the area that contains what the scientists apparently consider the most interesting feature in this image, which they have labeled as “pits forming lines.” These are the vertical cracks and strings of holes that can be seen in this glacier-like flow. In addition, you can see that the cracking is not just vertical, but also extends out in horizontal directions, though the widest cracks are all vertical.
The next image below, which is a lower resolution crop of the full photo, shows a wider view to provide a better picture of the glacier itself.
The white box marks the area covered by the first photo above. The white arrows indicate my guess of the downhill flow direction of this apparent glacier, which seems to split at the eastern mesa into northeastern and southern flows.
The red box in the overview map below marks the location of this glacier, in the northern part of the chaos region dubbed Protonilus Mensae that is also part if what I have dubbed Mars’ mensae glacier country.
The numbered black boxes indicate cool images in this region that I have previously featured:
- 1. Buried glaciers flowing off of Martian mesa
- 2. Brain Terrain on Mars
- 3. How to spot a glacier on Mars
- 4. Glacier country on Mars
- 5. Revisiting Mars’ glacier country
- 6. Back to Mars’ glacier country
So, why the cracks? My guess is that at some time when this glacier was flowing (which is probably not now), the flow rate in this section was faster than the deposition rate of ice, so the glacier started to spread, producing the cracks. The vertical cracks, perpendicular to the flow, were pulled apart, and thus produced the holes. The horizontal cracks, parallel to the flow, were merely elongated which is why they are not as wide.
It is also possible that this ice might less protected by dust and debris, so that it is now sublimating away, thus causing these holes and cracks to widen with time.
The photo illustrates again why I call this Mars’ glacier country. Every photo of every mesa you see in the overview map has similar glacier-like features. There is a lot of buried ice in this region on Mars, all there for future explorers to mine to their heart’s content.
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.
Click for entire image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped to post here, was taken on December 4, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
I have cropped it to show at full resolution the area that contains what the scientists apparently consider the most interesting feature in this image, which they have labeled as “pits forming lines.” These are the vertical cracks and strings of holes that can be seen in this glacier-like flow. In addition, you can see that the cracking is not just vertical, but also extends out in horizontal directions, though the widest cracks are all vertical.
The next image below, which is a lower resolution crop of the full photo, shows a wider view to provide a better picture of the glacier itself.
The white box marks the area covered by the first photo above. The white arrows indicate my guess of the downhill flow direction of this apparent glacier, which seems to split at the eastern mesa into northeastern and southern flows.
The red box in the overview map below marks the location of this glacier, in the northern part of the chaos region dubbed Protonilus Mensae that is also part if what I have dubbed Mars’ mensae glacier country.
The numbered black boxes indicate cool images in this region that I have previously featured:
- 1. Buried glaciers flowing off of Martian mesa
- 2. Brain Terrain on Mars
- 3. How to spot a glacier on Mars
- 4. Glacier country on Mars
- 5. Revisiting Mars’ glacier country
- 6. Back to Mars’ glacier country
So, why the cracks? My guess is that at some time when this glacier was flowing (which is probably not now), the flow rate in this section was faster than the deposition rate of ice, so the glacier started to spread, producing the cracks. The vertical cracks, perpendicular to the flow, were pulled apart, and thus produced the holes. The horizontal cracks, parallel to the flow, were merely elongated which is why they are not as wide.
It is also possible that this ice might less protected by dust and debris, so that it is now sublimating away, thus causing these holes and cracks to widen with time.
The photo illustrates again why I call this Mars’ glacier country. Every photo of every mesa you see in the overview map has similar glacier-like features. There is a lot of buried ice in this region on Mars, all there for future explorers to mine to their heart’s content.
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.
Bob, I always love your cool images. Keep ’em coming!
Steve Golson: Thank you. Space news is somewhat light this week so far. Moreover, the Lunar Planetary conference is going on, which is taking up much of my time. I managed to do this cool image between talks. (I am listening to a presentation even as I type.)