Scroll down to read this post.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. I keep the website clean from pop-ups and annoying demands. Instead, I depend entirely on my readers to support me. Though this means I am sacrificing some income, it also means that I remain entirely independent from outside pressure. By depending solely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, no one can threaten me with censorship. You don't like what I write, you can simply go elsewhere.

 

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:

4. A Paypal subscription:


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.


A Martian cliff

A strange Martian cliff
Click for full image.

Many features on Mars immediately make one think of the Grand Canyon and the stark dramatic geology of the American southwest. Today’s cool image on the right, cropped and reduced to post here, is a typical example. Photographed on September 7, 2021 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), it shows a dramatic cliff face that I estimate is about 3,000 feet high.

A closer look, however, almost always shows that this Martian terrain is not like the American southwest at all, but alien in its own way.

At the base of this abrupt cliff the terrain suddenly changes to a series of smooth downward fan-shaped flows. The cliff evokes rough boulders, avalanches, and chaotic erosion. The fans evoke a gentle and organized erosion of small particles like dust or sand. The two processes are completely different, and yet here the former is butted right up against the latter.

The fans also appear to flow out of hollows in the rough cliff, suggesting that somehow as the cliff erodes in chunks those chunks break into sand or dust, find the lowest points, and then flow downward like liquid.

How strange. How Martian. And how truly beautiful.

Genesis cover

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

5 comments

  • pawn

    What a great shot! Thanks Bob.

  • Alternatively, or additionally, could not material from the upper plateau spill down the crevices? Geology seems to happen slowly on Mars, due to temperature and gravity.

  • pawn

    I’ve been looking at this incredibly alien landscape for a while. Things like this awe me. One of the reasons I come here is to get my fix of alien inspired awe.

    And the tiny little mysteries that I will never understand, like that little bright “ball” on the “beach” in the lower left. All by itself. Looks like it rolled down a hill of low-g quicksand.

    My, my……

  • Daniel Kaczynski

    I must say I really enjoy these cool and very compelling images. In spite of all
    our earthly troubles, it is good to be reminded that there is an entire solar system
    for us to explore, just waiting for us!
    Let me throw in my 2 cents worth: if you look just below the top edge of the cliff
    there appear to be darker bands of material running lengthwise. Is this some kind
    of sedimentary rock? “Sandstone?” Even if the bedrock here is volcanic, consider that
    on Earth, pumice is very light weight and crumbly.
    My conjecture is that no matter how imposing this cliff may appear, the material
    of which it is made is rather insubstantial and erosion causes it to crumble directly
    into fine sand or dust.
    And thank you, pawn, for pointing out that “beach ball.” Some Martian kids were
    probably playing volleyball and lost it. Their parents will be upset that they lost an
    expensive toy.

  • David M. Cook

    Perhaps the rough cliff is NOT eroding, and the fans are just sand/dust that was blown off the top & fell into place, rather than making a dune pile. This would explain the lack of large debris at the base of the fans.

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *