Comments on: Ancient fossil river in the very dry equatorial regions of Mars

By: Blair Ivey

Blair Ivey — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 07:26:48 +0000

markedup2:

“The Martians have 60 words for ‘dirt'”
Encyclopedia Sol

‘Landscape’ has to be tended: ‘terrain’ just lays around.

By: John

John — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 22:51:03 +0000

Some planets get fossilized critters, some get fossilized river beds and deltas. Poor Mars. Maybe there are critters in your rivers.

By: markedup2

markedup2 — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 14:57:20 +0000

emphasizes the barrenness of this terrain
I was going to quibble with “barrenness” since the entire planet is a barren wasteland, then I noticed the noun. Does Mars have terrain?

I’m in favor of “yes”. Creating different words for “dirt” depending on the location it’s found seems unhelpful. Content (e.g. loam vs regolith) makes more sense.

Although, what’s the difference between “terrain” and “landscape”?

By: Blair Ivey

Blair Ivey — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 04:56:15 +0000

This is, really, beyond human comprehension:

” . . . the remains of giant rivers that flowed billions of years ago.”

“The low erosion rates at this location . . .” The post references Earthly locations, but ‘billions’ of years?

The state-of-the-art in Mars exploration has gone, in the lifetimes of many, from a fuzzy disc, to a place where terrain is seen from ground-level in hi-def.

Suggest a ‘V-Prize’; design a rover that can survive on Venus.