Buried peaks in a sea of Martian sand
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on April 13, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what the MRO science team labels as “streamlined features”, though that doesn’t seem to me to be the best description.
Granted, the prevailing winds, from the northeast to the southwest, appear to pushing the sand dune fields to the southwest. The dark line — created recently by a dust devil — indicates the wind direction. The mesas, from 100 to 200 feet high, do not however appear very streamlined. Instead, they simply look like they are poking up through this sea of sand and dunes, with the wind able over time to successfully push that sand uphill a hundred-plus feet into the saddle between the mesas.
The overview map below provides some context and possibly an explanation, though not a very conclusive one.
The rectangle in the inset marks the location of these mesas, in the northern interior of Argyre Basin. Though the latitude, 48 degrees south, suggests they should be near surface ice, the picture shows no sign of such. Instead, the inset shows that these mesas line up as a series of parallel north-south oriented ridges, placed down before the impact that created the unnamed 12-mile-wide eroded crater to the northeast.
Thus, the geology here implies the mesas are very ancient mountain peaks formed a very long time ago. Argyre Basin is thought to have been formed by a giant impact about four billion years ago, during what scientists label the Late Heavy Bombarment when the planets were coalescing. Later it is believed the basin was covered with a thick ice sheet and possibly even a lake. As that water sublimated away the parallel ridges could have been caused by glaciers flowing.
Or possibly these ridges are volcanic in nature, as suggested by the pit at the top of the bottommost mesa in the picture above. The ridges could have originally been cracks formed from the large impact to the north, radiating away to the south. Any lava that pushed up through those cracks could have been more resistent to erosion, so that over time the cracks became the parallel lines of peaks we see today.
This is all very speculative however. What appears evident however is that the peaks/mesas are the tops of very ancient mountains, buried beneath material that was placed there later.
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
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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.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on April 13, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what the MRO science team labels as “streamlined features”, though that doesn’t seem to me to be the best description.
Granted, the prevailing winds, from the northeast to the southwest, appear to pushing the sand dune fields to the southwest. The dark line — created recently by a dust devil — indicates the wind direction. The mesas, from 100 to 200 feet high, do not however appear very streamlined. Instead, they simply look like they are poking up through this sea of sand and dunes, with the wind able over time to successfully push that sand uphill a hundred-plus feet into the saddle between the mesas.
The overview map below provides some context and possibly an explanation, though not a very conclusive one.
The rectangle in the inset marks the location of these mesas, in the northern interior of Argyre Basin. Though the latitude, 48 degrees south, suggests they should be near surface ice, the picture shows no sign of such. Instead, the inset shows that these mesas line up as a series of parallel north-south oriented ridges, placed down before the impact that created the unnamed 12-mile-wide eroded crater to the northeast.
Thus, the geology here implies the mesas are very ancient mountain peaks formed a very long time ago. Argyre Basin is thought to have been formed by a giant impact about four billion years ago, during what scientists label the Late Heavy Bombarment when the planets were coalescing. Later it is believed the basin was covered with a thick ice sheet and possibly even a lake. As that water sublimated away the parallel ridges could have been caused by glaciers flowing.
Or possibly these ridges are volcanic in nature, as suggested by the pit at the top of the bottommost mesa in the picture above. The ridges could have originally been cracks formed from the large impact to the north, radiating away to the south. Any lava that pushed up through those cracks could have been more resistent to erosion, so that over time the cracks became the parallel lines of peaks we see today.
This is all very speculative however. What appears evident however is that the peaks/mesas are the tops of very ancient mountains, buried beneath material that was placed there later.
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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