A glacier sea on Mars
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, should at first glance be one of my “What the heck!?” images. However, a little detective work quickly provides us some understanding of the inexplicable geology seen at this particular location on Mars.
The picture was taken on August 29, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and was labeled by the science team a “Lobate Debris Apron in Deuteronilus Mensae.” This mensae region is the western part of the 2,000-mile-long strip in the northern mid-latitudes of Mars that I label glacier country, since almost every high resolution picture taken in this strip shows extensive glacial features.
This picture is no different, showing what appears to be glaciers, but by itself it is still difficult to make sense of it. Glaciers flow downhill, like rivers. In this high resolution image the direction of flow is somewhat unclear.
As always, a wider view clarifies the picture.
Click for full image.
The photo to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on August 8, 2008 by the wide-view context camera on MRO. The white box shows the area covered by the high resolution image above. From this viewpoint it is very clear the flow is downhill to the north, and the broken area shown in the first picture shows an area where the top layers of these glaciers appear to be breaking up, probably due to sublimation of the ice below.
The white cross on the overview map below the location of this picture. At 43 degrees north latitude and right inside the chaos terrain that makes up glacier country, it appears from these pictures that at this location, the surface of Mars is not that different than a sea of glacial ice, flowing downhill to fill the valleys between the mesas.
Unlike liquid water, however, ice can flow in solid layers. Here, the upper layers in the valleys have apparently sublimated away.
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 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 full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, should at first glance be one of my “What the heck!?” images. However, a little detective work quickly provides us some understanding of the inexplicable geology seen at this particular location on Mars.
The picture was taken on August 29, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and was labeled by the science team a “Lobate Debris Apron in Deuteronilus Mensae.” This mensae region is the western part of the 2,000-mile-long strip in the northern mid-latitudes of Mars that I label glacier country, since almost every high resolution picture taken in this strip shows extensive glacial features.
This picture is no different, showing what appears to be glaciers, but by itself it is still difficult to make sense of it. Glaciers flow downhill, like rivers. In this high resolution image the direction of flow is somewhat unclear.
As always, a wider view clarifies the picture.
Click for full image.
The photo to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on August 8, 2008 by the wide-view context camera on MRO. The white box shows the area covered by the high resolution image above. From this viewpoint it is very clear the flow is downhill to the north, and the broken area shown in the first picture shows an area where the top layers of these glaciers appear to be breaking up, probably due to sublimation of the ice below.
The white cross on the overview map below the location of this picture. At 43 degrees north latitude and right inside the chaos terrain that makes up glacier country, it appears from these pictures that at this location, the surface of Mars is not that different than a sea of glacial ice, flowing downhill to fill the valleys between the mesas.
Unlike liquid water, however, ice can flow in solid layers. Here, the upper layers in the valleys have apparently sublimated away.
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 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
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