A different kind of chaos on Mars
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, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). I had originally chosen to feature a different picture of this spot, taken on August 1, 2024 in order to create a stereo pair, but this week the camera team featured this first photo, providing a caption.
This disrupted surface is characterized by a collection of rounded to flat-topped mounds of various sizes connected by narrow flat floors, typical of the aptly named “chaotic terrain” on Mars.
What could have caused this flat surface to break into pieces? You might imagine that a flat surface could be broken up if it was inflated or collapsed. One hypothesis is that large amounts of water were released from deep below the ground to cause the surface break up.
Normally on Mars, especially in the mid-latitudes, chaotic terrain is associated with glacial activity, suggesting that glaciers over time erode valleys along random criss-crossing fault lines to create the mesas and canyons. This patch of chaotic terrain however suggests a different formation process.
The white dot in the rectangle on the overview map to the right marks the location. The inset shows this entire patch of chaos terrain, dubbed Ister Chaos, with the green box marking the area covered by the photo above. Unlike other chaos regions, Ister is a very distinct patch on a smooth relatively featureless plain. It appears almost as if the supporting ground beneath a flat structurally weak surface had suddenly been removed, causing that surface to collapse and break into pieces.
The caption suggests a flood of underground water could have removed that underlying material. As Ister Chaos is also in one of the several major outflow channels draining the large high elevation region where the Red Planet’s largest volcanoes are grouped, this theory makes some sense. The data we presently have suggests catastrophic floods from that high region shaped these outflow channels, though this theory is hardly proven.
The two-mile-wide deep crater in the lower left of the picture strengthens the theory. It has almost no rim, suggesting that the impact, which occurred after Ister was formed, hit relatively soft ground that was able to absorb the energy without throwing off much ejecta. Instead, the impact drilled downward, compacting the ground so that the floor of the crater sits well below the random surrounding canyons.
None of this theorizing of catastrophic floods eliminates the possibility that glacial activity formed this chaos, however. The available data is simply insufficient to come to any definitive conclusions.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). I had originally chosen to feature a different picture of this spot, taken on August 1, 2024 in order to create a stereo pair, but this week the camera team featured this first photo, providing a caption.
This disrupted surface is characterized by a collection of rounded to flat-topped mounds of various sizes connected by narrow flat floors, typical of the aptly named “chaotic terrain” on Mars.
What could have caused this flat surface to break into pieces? You might imagine that a flat surface could be broken up if it was inflated or collapsed. One hypothesis is that large amounts of water were released from deep below the ground to cause the surface break up.
Normally on Mars, especially in the mid-latitudes, chaotic terrain is associated with glacial activity, suggesting that glaciers over time erode valleys along random criss-crossing fault lines to create the mesas and canyons. This patch of chaotic terrain however suggests a different formation process.
The white dot in the rectangle on the overview map to the right marks the location. The inset shows this entire patch of chaos terrain, dubbed Ister Chaos, with the green box marking the area covered by the photo above. Unlike other chaos regions, Ister is a very distinct patch on a smooth relatively featureless plain. It appears almost as if the supporting ground beneath a flat structurally weak surface had suddenly been removed, causing that surface to collapse and break into pieces.
The caption suggests a flood of underground water could have removed that underlying material. As Ister Chaos is also in one of the several major outflow channels draining the large high elevation region where the Red Planet’s largest volcanoes are grouped, this theory makes some sense. The data we presently have suggests catastrophic floods from that high region shaped these outflow channels, though this theory is hardly proven.
The two-mile-wide deep crater in the lower left of the picture strengthens the theory. It has almost no rim, suggesting that the impact, which occurred after Ister was formed, hit relatively soft ground that was able to absorb the energy without throwing off much ejecta. Instead, the impact drilled downward, compacting the ground so that the floor of the crater sits well below the random surrounding canyons.
None of this theorizing of catastrophic floods eliminates the possibility that glacial activity formed this chaos, however. The available data is simply insufficient to come to any definitive conclusions.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I like HOW we see LARGE dynamic dust devils on Mars…..in an atmosphere that’s -50F, 0.1% humidity, and 2% CO2. Only.
Kinda hard to explain THAT via US yuppies, driving Ford Explorers on earth, in the 80’s and 90’s…..yep, Velikovsky was a nutter*.
*In the 1940’s he “predicted”(did the math) that Venus, in a retrograde orbit EXTERNALLY, would be blazing HOT on it’s surface….
Velikovsky? Oh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worlds_in_Collision
I suppose he was a Nutter, because he based his conclusions upon historical events of ancient history… not scientific principles. His scientific knowledge was lacking. To quote Wikipedia;
“The fundamental criticism against the book from the astronomy community was that its celestial mechanics were irreconcilable with Newtonian mechanics, requiring planetary orbits which could not be made to conform to the laws of conservation of energy and conservation of angular momentum (Bauer 1984:70). Velikovsky conceded that the behavior of the planets in his theories is not consistent with Newton’s laws of motion and universal gravitation. He proposed that electromagnetic forces could be the cause of the movements of the planets, although such forces between astronomical bodies are known to be essentially zero.”
I’ve always wondered where the theory that Venus was the core of a gas giant came from. I’ve also heard that it may have been a moon originating the destroyed planet that became the astroid belt. Our moon and perhaps Mars originated from there also. No evidence, just mysteries until we can do some core samples to determine their make up. (for instance the entire northern hemisphere of Mars is flat and much lower than the southern hemisphere having the appearance of passing through a gas giant? Or large Impact?)
Because we have sampled the moon and found it to be identical substance to the earth, it is believed the moon came from the earth. How it achieved escape velocity is a dealbreaker for me. But we know it to be intimately involved with our continents on earth, which sit above the ancient atmosphere of calcium carbonate. Our continents are also estimated to be the same amount of mass as what’s missing from the surface of the moon facing earth… About 2 miles deep, exposing the lunar core. (To deny our relationship with the moon is similar to a man denying raping a woman when the rape test came back 95% match)
There is ample evidence that Luna/Thea is the Mars sized object that slammed into the earth billions of years ago reducing its momentum enough to be captured by our gravitational field. With plasma temperatures rivaling a supernova, heavy metals are found in the upper crust were they are easily accessible. (sorry Sagan, we are made from moon stuff…)
Although Venus’s retrograde “revolving” is a mystery… I do not believe it has anything to do with its heat content.
If it revolved in the same direction as the other planets at its present speed of 10 months per revolution, and a orbital time of nine months… it would take about 10 Venus years from sunrise to sunrise.
But it doesn’t, so the revolution and orbital time complement each other causing sunrise to sunrise to occur about every 116 days. Or about 2 Venus days per Venus year.
Is 2 months of Night long enough for the shadow side of Venus to cool down?
It would if the sun was the source of its heat, “it is not”.
The shadow side of Venus has no difference in temperature than the Sun side. The surface of Venus is effectively isothermal, even on the polar regions.
Can this can be blamed on fast moving winds? Or a greenhouse effect?
The evidence points to “friction” from 92 earth atmospheres equivalent of pressure… or the same pressure as slightly more than a half a mile under Earth’s ocean.
Altitude is one of the few factors that affect Venusian temperatures. (Which is consistent as on all the planets and moons in our solar system with an atmosphere) The highest point on Venus, Maxwell Montes, is therefore the coolest point on Venus, with a temperature of about 655 K (380 °C; 715 °F)
Canyons and craters, for which there is nearly 1000 on the surface, are measured at 900°F at the bottom. (Mercury‘s peak temperature is 800°F… 100° colder then Venus)
Temperature in Venus upper atmosphere, at one bar pressure (earth normal), is 70°F. Perfect for a cloud city even though the winds will make it impossible except in the vortex of the polar regions.
The upper atmosphere is colder than -200°F… Cold enough to freeze carbon dioxide into dry ice snow making the atmosphere of Venus so reflective that 90% of the light that hits it is reflected back in to space making the planet extremely bright. It is also evidence that the suns 400° heat does not penetrate that cold layer… if it did, it could not exist! The lower wavelength of light that penetrates the clouds and 92 atm all the way to the surface is about 10% of the radiance the earth receives… or the equivalent of the dim on a rainy day.
Greenhouse is a myth, it never advanced past theory because it has never been observed in nature. 40 years of satellite observation combined with 50 Weather balloons launched twice a day from America alone has never once experienced or confirmed a greenhouse event in our atmosphere.
The Chinook wind, Antarctica catabolic wind heating up the air 5.4° for every thousand feet it descends towards sea level, occurs consistently with every event with no solar participation. Holds the Guinness book of world records for temperature change without being in any of the climate models… How could this happen?
Overwhelming evidence that atmospheric pressure generates heat from friction that drives our climate, and is the source the majority of our heat. (you experience this where you live with every low pressure system that passes over and you feel the temperature drop) Boyle’s law or ideal gas law‘s rule nature and science regardless of science-fiction theories… After all it’s the law!
Knowing the truth will set you free!