A Martian river of ice
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on January 26, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The science team labeled it “Looking for Gullies” because the researchers were likely searching for such geological features on the cliff wall that runs down the right side of the picture.
What is more significant however about this picture is the glacier features in the canyon below that cliff. The downhill grade is to the southwest, and it is very evident that the canyon is filled with glacial-type debris, flowing down that grade. Along the base of the cliff the flow seems focused but squeezed, the larger blocks to the west moving slower and thus acting like a wall themselves. In between the flow moves like rapids in a narrow part of a river, albeit in slow motion.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, inside the 750-mile-long Dao Vallis canyon that descends into Helles Basin, the death valley of Mars. As I noted in 2021, Dao Vallis is one of several similar long glacier-filled canyons on Mars that strongly suggest that slowly flowing ice formed many of the red planet’s many meandering canyons, not flowing water.
Though there is evidence that the initial formation of this canyon was related to volcanic activity at its source, the Dao Vallis we see today was shaped neither by a river of lava nor a river of water. Instead, what we see is a river of ice, its channel incised over eons by the slow downward flow of glacier that presently fills it.
There are no glaciers as long as this on Earth, and thus Dao Vallis offers us a look at a geological process that while superficially resembling glaciers on Earth, is still significantly alien. And though alien to us it might actually be common on Mars, and a fundamental component of its geological history.
It remains unproven whether ice or water formed Mars’ many meandering river-like channels. Liquid water fits our Earthbound expectations, so that is what most scientists favor. On Mars however no climate model can convincingly create an atmosphere in the far past that was warm and thick enough to allow liquid water to flow.
Thus, a river of ice like Dao Vallis puts forth that other more alien possibility, that ice created these channels, and that we need to step away from our Earthbound expectations and look at different processes more appropriate for Mars to explain its geology.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on January 26, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The science team labeled it “Looking for Gullies” because the researchers were likely searching for such geological features on the cliff wall that runs down the right side of the picture.
What is more significant however about this picture is the glacier features in the canyon below that cliff. The downhill grade is to the southwest, and it is very evident that the canyon is filled with glacial-type debris, flowing down that grade. Along the base of the cliff the flow seems focused but squeezed, the larger blocks to the west moving slower and thus acting like a wall themselves. In between the flow moves like rapids in a narrow part of a river, albeit in slow motion.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, inside the 750-mile-long Dao Vallis canyon that descends into Helles Basin, the death valley of Mars. As I noted in 2021, Dao Vallis is one of several similar long glacier-filled canyons on Mars that strongly suggest that slowly flowing ice formed many of the red planet’s many meandering canyons, not flowing water.
Though there is evidence that the initial formation of this canyon was related to volcanic activity at its source, the Dao Vallis we see today was shaped neither by a river of lava nor a river of water. Instead, what we see is a river of ice, its channel incised over eons by the slow downward flow of glacier that presently fills it.
There are no glaciers as long as this on Earth, and thus Dao Vallis offers us a look at a geological process that while superficially resembling glaciers on Earth, is still significantly alien. And though alien to us it might actually be common on Mars, and a fundamental component of its geological history.
It remains unproven whether ice or water formed Mars’ many meandering river-like channels. Liquid water fits our Earthbound expectations, so that is what most scientists favor. On Mars however no climate model can convincingly create an atmosphere in the far past that was warm and thick enough to allow liquid water to flow.
Thus, a river of ice like Dao Vallis puts forth that other more alien possibility, that ice created these channels, and that we need to step away from our Earthbound expectations and look at different processes more appropriate for Mars to explain its geology.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
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.