Back to Mars’ glacier country
Click for full image.
The cool image to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on November 3, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what the science team labels a “Possible Tongue-Shaped Flow Feature in Protonilus Mensae.” There is no caption, so I will try to provide.
Protonilus Mensae is part of the long string of chaos terrain that runs about 2,000 miles along the transition zone between the southern cratered highlands and the northern lowland plains at about 30 to 40 degrees north latitude, and includes the other mensae regions dubbed Deuteronilus to the west and Nilosyrtis to the east. This region of Mars I like to call glacier country, because almost every high resolution photograph appears to show glacial features. To get an idea what I mean, take a gander at these past posts, their locations indicated by number in the overview map of Protonilus Mensae below:
Click for full image.
- 1. Buried glaciers flowing off of Martian mesa
- 2. Brain Terrain on Mars
- 3. How to spot a glacier on Mars
- 4. Glacier country on Mars
- 5. Revisiting Mars’ glacier country
The red rectangle indicates the location of today’s “tongue-shaped flow.” The image covers the interior slope of this large unnamed 40-mile-wide crater’s northern rim. The crater itself, as shown by the wider MRO context camera photo to the right, is heavily eroded, with many breaks in its rim. The grey flatish flow at the bottom of the close-up image above is the crater floor, apparently still filled with ice.
This tongue-shaped feature is flowing downhill to the south, into this eroded crater. It also appears that ice fills the depression to the right of this feature.
The ice in this flow also appears eroded, as if it has been sublimating away rather than growing and flowing downhill to the crater flow.
Why does the ice on the crater floor seem solid and this flow appears to be shrinking? The flow is on a south-facing slope, which means it gets a lot of sunlight each day, throughout the year. Such circumstances will encourage warming and the sublimation of that ice.
Another possibility is that because this flow is high up on the rim, it is exposed to more wind, which has scoured the protective layer of dust and debris from the ice, thus exposing it more to sunlight and encouraging its decay. The crater floor will be better protected from wind, and so will still have that protective layer more fully upon it.
A third possibility is that my guess that the ice in this flow is eroded is simply wrong. It could simply be that it only looks eroded because of the roughness of its protective layer of debris.
Regardless, this photo once again illustrates the pervasiveness of glacial features in this part of Mars. Snap a picture anywhere in this strip of chaos terrain, and you will see a glacier either flowing downhill or filling the bottom of a canyon or crater.
As I have said repeatedly, much of Mars is a desert like Antarctica, ice-filled but dry.
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 full image.
The cool image to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on November 3, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what the science team labels a “Possible Tongue-Shaped Flow Feature in Protonilus Mensae.” There is no caption, so I will try to provide.
Protonilus Mensae is part of the long string of chaos terrain that runs about 2,000 miles along the transition zone between the southern cratered highlands and the northern lowland plains at about 30 to 40 degrees north latitude, and includes the other mensae regions dubbed Deuteronilus to the west and Nilosyrtis to the east. This region of Mars I like to call glacier country, because almost every high resolution photograph appears to show glacial features. To get an idea what I mean, take a gander at these past posts, their locations indicated by number in the overview map of Protonilus Mensae below:
Click for full image.
- 1. Buried glaciers flowing off of Martian mesa
- 2. Brain Terrain on Mars
- 3. How to spot a glacier on Mars
- 4. Glacier country on Mars
- 5. Revisiting Mars’ glacier country
The red rectangle indicates the location of today’s “tongue-shaped flow.” The image covers the interior slope of this large unnamed 40-mile-wide crater’s northern rim. The crater itself, as shown by the wider MRO context camera photo to the right, is heavily eroded, with many breaks in its rim. The grey flatish flow at the bottom of the close-up image above is the crater floor, apparently still filled with ice.
This tongue-shaped feature is flowing downhill to the south, into this eroded crater. It also appears that ice fills the depression to the right of this feature.
The ice in this flow also appears eroded, as if it has been sublimating away rather than growing and flowing downhill to the crater flow.
Why does the ice on the crater floor seem solid and this flow appears to be shrinking? The flow is on a south-facing slope, which means it gets a lot of sunlight each day, throughout the year. Such circumstances will encourage warming and the sublimation of that ice.
Another possibility is that because this flow is high up on the rim, it is exposed to more wind, which has scoured the protective layer of dust and debris from the ice, thus exposing it more to sunlight and encouraging its decay. The crater floor will be better protected from wind, and so will still have that protective layer more fully upon it.
A third possibility is that my guess that the ice in this flow is eroded is simply wrong. It could simply be that it only looks eroded because of the roughness of its protective layer of debris.
Regardless, this photo once again illustrates the pervasiveness of glacial features in this part of Mars. Snap a picture anywhere in this strip of chaos terrain, and you will see a glacier either flowing downhill or filling the bottom of a canyon or crater.
As I have said repeatedly, much of Mars is a desert like Antarctica, ice-filled but dry.
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.
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.