A frozen bubbly caldron 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 April 11, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows a nice collection of what the scientists label “irregular ring structures,” interspersed with clusters of small mesas ranging in heights from 13 to 75 feet.
The location is at 27 degrees north latitude, so the presence of near surface ice, which might explain these strange rings, is less likely though not impossible. The stipled nature of the flat ground suggests that near surface ice might be here, resulting in sublimation of that ice and leaving behind a flat but rough surface.
The location however suggests another possibility, which though vastly different in some ways, is almost identical in others.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, inside the Amazonis Planitia plain and about five hundred miles south of the candidate landing zone for SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft. The surface of this region is generally considered to be a flood lava plain, its surface coated with extensive lava deposits placed there more than a billion years ago during Mars’ volcanic eruption period. Thus much of the surface is flat, featureless, with far fewer craters.
The inset provides a bit more information. These rings and mesas extend along a low rise of land that stretches about 80 miles north-south and 30 miles east-west. The eastern front of this ridge is much steeper than the western slope, and appears to end at what looks like a frozen wave of lava.
Thus, what the rings and mounds might represent is the crack and bubble of a wide flow of flood lava, that as it slowly pushed eastward its surface released a number of bubbles (the mesas), some of which popped (the rings).
It is a nice theory, but if I were you I’d retain my skepticism. We could also still be looking at similar features produced by the sublimation of underground water ice, most of which is now gone.
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 April 11, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows a nice collection of what the scientists label “irregular ring structures,” interspersed with clusters of small mesas ranging in heights from 13 to 75 feet.
The location is at 27 degrees north latitude, so the presence of near surface ice, which might explain these strange rings, is less likely though not impossible. The stipled nature of the flat ground suggests that near surface ice might be here, resulting in sublimation of that ice and leaving behind a flat but rough surface.
The location however suggests another possibility, which though vastly different in some ways, is almost identical in others.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, inside the Amazonis Planitia plain and about five hundred miles south of the candidate landing zone for SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft. The surface of this region is generally considered to be a flood lava plain, its surface coated with extensive lava deposits placed there more than a billion years ago during Mars’ volcanic eruption period. Thus much of the surface is flat, featureless, with far fewer craters.
The inset provides a bit more information. These rings and mesas extend along a low rise of land that stretches about 80 miles north-south and 30 miles east-west. The eastern front of this ridge is much steeper than the western slope, and appears to end at what looks like a frozen wave of lava.
Thus, what the rings and mounds might represent is the crack and bubble of a wide flow of flood lava, that as it slowly pushed eastward its surface released a number of bubbles (the mesas), some of which popped (the rings).
It is a nice theory, but if I were you I’d retain my skepticism. We could also still be looking at similar features produced by the sublimation of underground water ice, most of which is now gone.
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
These structures look very similar to pingos in the Canadian high arctic.