A glacial lake 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 August 30, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
It shows what appears to be a glacial flow of ice, flowing downhill to the southwest and inside a wide canyon about three miles across. The canyon rims to the north and south are about 2,000 to 2,100 feet above the canyon’s lowest point, indicated by the string of “+” signs.
This close-up view immediately suggests a canyon whose glacier flows outward to the southwest into open lowland terrain, though the three craters, because they are undistorted, suggests that this flow is presently not active. That suggestion however would be wrong. It is always necessary to understand Martian geology to not only take close-in views at high resolution, but to zoom back and see the terrain in context.
The white rectangle inside the inset on the overview map to the right marks the location of the photo above. If you look closely at the inset, an oblique view created from a global mosaic of MRO context camera images, you will see that this glacial flow is inside an enclosed 25-mile-long depression, with no outlet. According to MRO’s elevation data, the low point is not to the southwest, but in the center of the depression, with the flows going downhill from each end.
This depression thus is likely a graben, formed by the shifting of the ground along fault lines. In this case that shift likely produced a void as the ground was forced to spread apart by the bulging upward of this volcanic terrain. Because it is at 38 degrees north latitude, in the mid-latitude regions where orbital data sees numerous glacial features, it is not surprising that the floor of this depression appears filled with ice.
The feature however does pose one really intriguing question. If when active the ice has flown downhill from the depression’s ends, where does it go when it gets to the center? There is no pile-up there of glacial material. Is there an underground unseen drainage at that center point? Or does the ice sublimate away (during one part of the climate cycle) at a rate that matches the growth rate (during another part of the climate cycle)?
Your guess is as good as mine.
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
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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.
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on August 30, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
It shows what appears to be a glacial flow of ice, flowing downhill to the southwest and inside a wide canyon about three miles across. The canyon rims to the north and south are about 2,000 to 2,100 feet above the canyon’s lowest point, indicated by the string of “+” signs.
This close-up view immediately suggests a canyon whose glacier flows outward to the southwest into open lowland terrain, though the three craters, because they are undistorted, suggests that this flow is presently not active. That suggestion however would be wrong. It is always necessary to understand Martian geology to not only take close-in views at high resolution, but to zoom back and see the terrain in context.
The white rectangle inside the inset on the overview map to the right marks the location of the photo above. If you look closely at the inset, an oblique view created from a global mosaic of MRO context camera images, you will see that this glacial flow is inside an enclosed 25-mile-long depression, with no outlet. According to MRO’s elevation data, the low point is not to the southwest, but in the center of the depression, with the flows going downhill from each end.
This depression thus is likely a graben, formed by the shifting of the ground along fault lines. In this case that shift likely produced a void as the ground was forced to spread apart by the bulging upward of this volcanic terrain. Because it is at 38 degrees north latitude, in the mid-latitude regions where orbital data sees numerous glacial features, it is not surprising that the floor of this depression appears filled with ice.
The feature however does pose one really intriguing question. If when active the ice has flown downhill from the depression’s ends, where does it go when it gets to the center? There is no pile-up there of glacial material. Is there an underground unseen drainage at that center point? Or does the ice sublimate away (during one part of the climate cycle) at a rate that matches the growth rate (during another part of the climate cycle)?
Your guess is as good as mine.
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.
Following the flow lines in the flat lake bottom, it appears the cliff/hillside extends over the flow lines but does not appear to be collapsed onto it. If the protruding hill was their first, the flow lines would go around it… Not under or through it. Obviously there’s more to this then what we can see.