Alien Mars
Click for original image.
Today’s cool image illustrates again the alien geology of Mars, often disguised as geological features that at first glance seem familiar. The picture to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on April 9, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Its most distinct feature, the mile-wide double crater in the center bottom, at first appears typical of such craters found on the Moon and elsewhere, suggesting that the bolide that caused it broke in two as it cut through the Martian atmosphere.
This double crater however is not like lunar double craters, in that the shape of both craters is deformed, and the deformation is not quite the same in each. Moreover, the crater does not appear to have an upraised rim or to have thrown out any obvious ejecta. Instead, the two objects hit what looks like soft ground, such as when you drop a pebble into snow.
There’s more.
The white dot east of Alba Mons on the overview map to the right marks this location, in the region to the northeast of Mars’ great volcanoes that is filled with parallel fissures, all oriented from the northeast to the southwest and aligned with the 3,500-mile-long fault line that appears linked to the formation of those giant volcanoes.
The ground here is likely hardened lava, but the surface appears soft like ice. The canyon running from the northeast to the southwest just north of this double crater is probably a graben, a fissure created when two large sections of ground separate or slip sideways in opposite directions. This hypothesis is strengthened in that the north wall is about 500 feet high while the south wall is only 400 feet high. The two halves shifted, but a different amount. The canyon looks soft too, with its floor having both dunes and glacial features. Similarly, the other small craters south of the canyon also look soft, and all appear to have glacial material and dunes in their interiors.
Finally there is the dark streak flowing down from the canyon’s south wall. This is a slope streak, a feature unique to Mars whose formation is not yet understood. There are theories, from a dust avalanche to seepage, but none seems to fit the facts entirely.
As I have said before, Mars is strange and wonderful, but mostly alien. We really won’t understand it fully until we recognize this, and stop applying our Earth-based assumptions upon it.
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.
Click for original image.
Today’s cool image illustrates again the alien geology of Mars, often disguised as geological features that at first glance seem familiar. The picture to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on April 9, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Its most distinct feature, the mile-wide double crater in the center bottom, at first appears typical of such craters found on the Moon and elsewhere, suggesting that the bolide that caused it broke in two as it cut through the Martian atmosphere.
This double crater however is not like lunar double craters, in that the shape of both craters is deformed, and the deformation is not quite the same in each. Moreover, the crater does not appear to have an upraised rim or to have thrown out any obvious ejecta. Instead, the two objects hit what looks like soft ground, such as when you drop a pebble into snow.
There’s more.
The white dot east of Alba Mons on the overview map to the right marks this location, in the region to the northeast of Mars’ great volcanoes that is filled with parallel fissures, all oriented from the northeast to the southwest and aligned with the 3,500-mile-long fault line that appears linked to the formation of those giant volcanoes.
The ground here is likely hardened lava, but the surface appears soft like ice. The canyon running from the northeast to the southwest just north of this double crater is probably a graben, a fissure created when two large sections of ground separate or slip sideways in opposite directions. This hypothesis is strengthened in that the north wall is about 500 feet high while the south wall is only 400 feet high. The two halves shifted, but a different amount. The canyon looks soft too, with its floor having both dunes and glacial features. Similarly, the other small craters south of the canyon also look soft, and all appear to have glacial material and dunes in their interiors.
Finally there is the dark streak flowing down from the canyon’s south wall. This is a slope streak, a feature unique to Mars whose formation is not yet understood. There are theories, from a dust avalanche to seepage, but none seems to fit the facts entirely.
As I have said before, Mars is strange and wonderful, but mostly alien. We really won’t understand it fully until we recognize this, and stop applying our Earth-based assumptions upon it.
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.
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