Barren land on Mars
Click for original image.
It might seem strange to call any particular place on Mars “barren” when the entire planet has no visible signs of life anywhere. However, much of the surface of Mars involves wind and ice features that show evidence of change and evolution over time. The presence of apparent near-surface ice and glacial features in almost every image located above 30 degrees latitude emphasizes this sense of potential life, even if that life will only be transported from Earth and established there someday by humans.
Today’s cool image to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, has none of these features. It is dry barren bedrock, with only a faint scattering of Martian dust indicated by many faint dust devil tracks.
The picture was taken on March 13, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The largest and most distinct flat-topped mesa in the image is only about 100 feet high, with the north-south ridgeline to the south about 20 feet high.
The black dot about a thousand miles west of Perseverance and on the northwest edge of the lava flood plain deposited by the shield volcano Syrtis Major marks the location of this barren terrain. Not only is its barrenness evident in the section I have cropped, it is also evident in the full picture, as well as in the wider view of MRO’s context camera in a picture taken on June 10, 2020. This ancient ground is so eroded that many of its craters are worn away, leaving behind a broken surface of small ridges, random cliffs, and scattered depressions and plateaus, all of which are only tens of feet higher than the lowest surrounding low points.
The location might have once had glacial ice. In fact, it resembles in some ways chaos terrain, which is thought to have formed from erosion by such glaciers. It is however a very long time since ice was present here. Instead, it looks like the surface has been eroded by eons of the wind and dust devils in Mars very thin atmosphere. Now all we have is bedrock and a thin layer of dust too small to even form dunes.
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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.
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Click for original image.
It might seem strange to call any particular place on Mars “barren” when the entire planet has no visible signs of life anywhere. However, much of the surface of Mars involves wind and ice features that show evidence of change and evolution over time. The presence of apparent near-surface ice and glacial features in almost every image located above 30 degrees latitude emphasizes this sense of potential life, even if that life will only be transported from Earth and established there someday by humans.
Today’s cool image to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, has none of these features. It is dry barren bedrock, with only a faint scattering of Martian dust indicated by many faint dust devil tracks.
The picture was taken on March 13, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The largest and most distinct flat-topped mesa in the image is only about 100 feet high, with the north-south ridgeline to the south about 20 feet high.
The black dot about a thousand miles west of Perseverance and on the northwest edge of the lava flood plain deposited by the shield volcano Syrtis Major marks the location of this barren terrain. Not only is its barrenness evident in the section I have cropped, it is also evident in the full picture, as well as in the wider view of MRO’s context camera in a picture taken on June 10, 2020. This ancient ground is so eroded that many of its craters are worn away, leaving behind a broken surface of small ridges, random cliffs, and scattered depressions and plateaus, all of which are only tens of feet higher than the lowest surrounding low points.
The location might have once had glacial ice. In fact, it resembles in some ways chaos terrain, which is thought to have formed from erosion by such glaciers. It is however a very long time since ice was present here. Instead, it looks like the surface has been eroded by eons of the wind and dust devils in Mars very thin atmosphere. Now all we have is bedrock and a thin layer of dust too small to even form dunes.
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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