An island of hundreds of scour pits in Mars’ largest volcanic ash field
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the left, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on April 25, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
It shows what the science team labels a “scour pit island,” an area about 13 miles long and 3.5 miles wide where the ground is covered by these pits.
Your eye may play tricks on you, reversing the elevations. These are all pits, with most having a central peak or ridgeline. To help, note that the sunlight is coming from the west. The arrow on the center left of the picture sits on a plateau above these pits.
According to this paper [pdf], the pits are slowly dug out by the wind coming from the southeast blowing to the northwest, as indicated by the arrows. The central peaks or ridges are thought to be a hint of the original topography, with the wind only able to pull ash from the terrain around these peaks.
On the overview map to the right, the white dot on the equator marks this location. The red splotches are areas where researchers have found high concentrations of scour pits, with the total so far found to number in the tens of thousands.
Initially it was believed the pits form because the volcanic ash that forms Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest such ash field on Mars, is easily broken up to blow away. Orbital imagery has now found large numbers of scour pits also surrounding Olympus Mons, suggesting that fields of this volcanic ash are more widespread on Mars than previously believed.
The inset on the overview map shows this whole island of scour pits, with the area covered by the picture above indicated by the rectangle. This concentration of pits amidst what appears to be a large relatively featureless surface of volcanic ash suggests the underlying topography under this island is rough and encourages the formation of the pits.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
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
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the left, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on April 25, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
It shows what the science team labels a “scour pit island,” an area about 13 miles long and 3.5 miles wide where the ground is covered by these pits.
Your eye may play tricks on you, reversing the elevations. These are all pits, with most having a central peak or ridgeline. To help, note that the sunlight is coming from the west. The arrow on the center left of the picture sits on a plateau above these pits.
According to this paper [pdf], the pits are slowly dug out by the wind coming from the southeast blowing to the northwest, as indicated by the arrows. The central peaks or ridges are thought to be a hint of the original topography, with the wind only able to pull ash from the terrain around these peaks.
On the overview map to the right, the white dot on the equator marks this location. The red splotches are areas where researchers have found high concentrations of scour pits, with the total so far found to number in the tens of thousands.
Initially it was believed the pits form because the volcanic ash that forms Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest such ash field on Mars, is easily broken up to blow away. Orbital imagery has now found large numbers of scour pits also surrounding Olympus Mons, suggesting that fields of this volcanic ash are more widespread on Mars than previously believed.
The inset on the overview map shows this whole island of scour pits, with the area covered by the picture above indicated by the rectangle. This concentration of pits amidst what appears to be a large relatively featureless surface of volcanic ash suggests the underlying topography under this island is rough and encourages the formation of the pits.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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
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