A lonely dry lava spring on Mars
Click for full image.
Today’s cool image from Mars takes us to the southern flank of the giant volcano Pavonis Mons. The photo to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, shows what appears to be a volcanic vent from more than a billion years ago when it is believed Pavonis was actively erupting. The picture was taken on March 2, 2021 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The grade is mostly downhill to the east and south east.
It is very possible that this is the resurgence of a lava tube, the point where the underground flow either emerged to the surface or got so close to the surface that the ceiling was thin enough to later collapse, creating this depression. No pits or skylights are visible in this high resolution picture, however, so whether there is an underground lava tube here is not known, an unknown that is amplified by the wider MRO context camera image below.
Click for full image.
This vent is the only truly distinct feature for miles around. The lack of craters indicates that this terrain is a relatively young lava plain. So does its relatively smoothness, which is even more striking if you look at the full context camera image. Other than a handful of other small vent depressions (all of which appear to be on the top of indistinct mounds), the surrounding countryside is practically featureless. Once, long ago in the past this was a sheet of slowly flowing molten lava that froze smoothly like ice.
The smooth terrain also shows no evidence of an underground lava tube uphill from the vent. Downhill the string of depressions suggests there is a tube below ground, but with no evident skylight into that void. The adjacent context camera image to the east shows a similar smooth terrain, with this string of depressions slowly fading away as if the tube was overwhelmed by the larger flow around it.
The overview map to the right shows this vent’s location by the white dot. The black dots indicate all the pits so far photographed by MRO’s high resolution camera that I have previously featured on Behind the Black.
Understanding the volcanic lava processes that took place when these volcanoes were active is going to take many decades of research, much of it required on the Martian surface. The lower Martian gravity changed things in ways that while resembling volcanic processes on Earth, also included some fundamental differences that are hard to decipher from orbital images.
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.
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5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Click for full image.
Today’s cool image from Mars takes us to the southern flank of the giant volcano Pavonis Mons. The photo to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, shows what appears to be a volcanic vent from more than a billion years ago when it is believed Pavonis was actively erupting. The picture was taken on March 2, 2021 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The grade is mostly downhill to the east and south east.
It is very possible that this is the resurgence of a lava tube, the point where the underground flow either emerged to the surface or got so close to the surface that the ceiling was thin enough to later collapse, creating this depression. No pits or skylights are visible in this high resolution picture, however, so whether there is an underground lava tube here is not known, an unknown that is amplified by the wider MRO context camera image below.
Click for full image.
This vent is the only truly distinct feature for miles around. The lack of craters indicates that this terrain is a relatively young lava plain. So does its relatively smoothness, which is even more striking if you look at the full context camera image. Other than a handful of other small vent depressions (all of which appear to be on the top of indistinct mounds), the surrounding countryside is practically featureless. Once, long ago in the past this was a sheet of slowly flowing molten lava that froze smoothly like ice.
The smooth terrain also shows no evidence of an underground lava tube uphill from the vent. Downhill the string of depressions suggests there is a tube below ground, but with no evident skylight into that void. The adjacent context camera image to the east shows a similar smooth terrain, with this string of depressions slowly fading away as if the tube was overwhelmed by the larger flow around it.
The overview map to the right shows this vent’s location by the white dot. The black dots indicate all the pits so far photographed by MRO’s high resolution camera that I have previously featured on Behind the Black.
Understanding the volcanic lava processes that took place when these volcanoes were active is going to take many decades of research, much of it required on the Martian surface. The lower Martian gravity changed things in ways that while resembling volcanic processes on Earth, also included some fundamental differences that are hard to decipher from orbital images.
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.
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