A verde valley on Mars
Click for original image.
In the southwest where I live, a valley dubbed “verde” (which means “green” in Spanish) is generally a place with a somewhat persistent river with lots of lush plant life. The Verde Valley in Arizona is the perfect example, with “close to 80% of the valley’s land … national forest.”
On Mars there is also a verde valley, but the name is not descriptive in the least. The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on January 22, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and shows one section of the Martian Verde Vallis, draining south to north.
The dark rippled patches inside this shallow canyon are sand dunes. In fact, though MRO has not taken many high resolution images of Verde Vallis, every one shows the valley with further patches of ripple dunes. See for example this image of a section of the valley just a bit farther north.
The overview map to the right provides some context. The inset shows Verde Vallis, with the black dot marking the location of today’s cool image. The black square in the overview map shows the location in the southern cratered highlands, in the dry equatorial regions about 1,400 miles due east of where the rover Opportunity once roamed.
The Martian Verde Vallis, about seventy miles long, is a dry place. Its canyon might have once harbored either a river or a glacier draining downhill from the cratered highlands into Arabia Terra, the largest transition region leading to the northern lowland plains. Now only sand dunes travel its length, pushed along slowly by the thin Martian winds.
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Click for original image.
In the southwest where I live, a valley dubbed “verde” (which means “green” in Spanish) is generally a place with a somewhat persistent river with lots of lush plant life. The Verde Valley in Arizona is the perfect example, with “close to 80% of the valley’s land … national forest.”
On Mars there is also a verde valley, but the name is not descriptive in the least. The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on January 22, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and shows one section of the Martian Verde Vallis, draining south to north.
The dark rippled patches inside this shallow canyon are sand dunes. In fact, though MRO has not taken many high resolution images of Verde Vallis, every one shows the valley with further patches of ripple dunes. See for example this image of a section of the valley just a bit farther north.
The overview map to the right provides some context. The inset shows Verde Vallis, with the black dot marking the location of today’s cool image. The black square in the overview map shows the location in the southern cratered highlands, in the dry equatorial regions about 1,400 miles due east of where the rover Opportunity once roamed.
The Martian Verde Vallis, about seventy miles long, is a dry place. Its canyon might have once harbored either a river or a glacier draining downhill from the cratered highlands into Arabia Terra, the largest transition region leading to the northern lowland plains. Now only sand dunes travel its length, pushed along slowly by the thin Martian winds.
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.
According to the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature at the IAU, “Verde Vallis” was named after the river in Arizona not its valley.
Giuseppe Verde. That’s Joe Green to you!
-V. Borge.
Green, in reference to the land, is really a color of hope. Hope for life, for prosperity. But not monetary prosperity.
Beautiful image, but I love the pictures from the surface. Hope they get a probe there soon.