Bursting lava bubbles on Mars
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on September 4, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
I really have no idea what caused these distorted cones. My intuition (a dangerous thing to rely on when it comes to science) suggests these are volcanic in nature. Imagine hot lava with gas bubbling up from below. Periodically a gas bubble will burst on the surface releasing the gas. Depending on temperature, that bursting bubble could harden in place.
The overview map below provides some support for my intuition, but it also suggests this first hypothesis could be completely wrong, something that does not surprise me in the least.
The white dot to the east of 185-mile-wide Newton Crater marks the location of these distorted cones. They are located on the southwest edge of the Tharsis Bulge, the high elevation plateau where most of the red planet’s largest volcanoes sit. Thus, this region has likely seen volcanic activity.
The location however is also at 42 degrees south latitude in the southern cratered highlands, inside the Martian mid-latitude bands where evidence of many glaciers and near surface ice is found. In fact, I have posted three different cool images (here, here, and here) of glacial features inside Newton Crater.
The light blue color inside some of the cones in the color strip also suggests the presence of ice. In addition, the cracks and eroded surface in the flats suggests sublimation and the drying out of ice.
Thus, these cones might not have formed from lava at all, and instead could be some form of water/ice volcano. The ice below ground sublimates to gas, and that gas bursts upward like the bubbles in simmering tomato sauce, bursting on the surface to form the cones.
Or not. Maybe we are looking at a geological process totally unique to Mars, involving a mix of lava, water, ice, and even dry ice.
Ain’t solving geological mysteries fun, especially when you are a hundred million miles away from the rocks?
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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 full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on September 4, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
I really have no idea what caused these distorted cones. My intuition (a dangerous thing to rely on when it comes to science) suggests these are volcanic in nature. Imagine hot lava with gas bubbling up from below. Periodically a gas bubble will burst on the surface releasing the gas. Depending on temperature, that bursting bubble could harden in place.
The overview map below provides some support for my intuition, but it also suggests this first hypothesis could be completely wrong, something that does not surprise me in the least.
The white dot to the east of 185-mile-wide Newton Crater marks the location of these distorted cones. They are located on the southwest edge of the Tharsis Bulge, the high elevation plateau where most of the red planet’s largest volcanoes sit. Thus, this region has likely seen volcanic activity.
The location however is also at 42 degrees south latitude in the southern cratered highlands, inside the Martian mid-latitude bands where evidence of many glaciers and near surface ice is found. In fact, I have posted three different cool images (here, here, and here) of glacial features inside Newton Crater.
The light blue color inside some of the cones in the color strip also suggests the presence of ice. In addition, the cracks and eroded surface in the flats suggests sublimation and the drying out of ice.
Thus, these cones might not have formed from lava at all, and instead could be some form of water/ice volcano. The ice below ground sublimates to gas, and that gas bursts upward like the bubbles in simmering tomato sauce, bursting on the surface to form the cones.
Or not. Maybe we are looking at a geological process totally unique to Mars, involving a mix of lava, water, ice, and even dry ice.
Ain’t solving geological mysteries fun, especially when you are a hundred million miles away from the rocks?
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
You note the cracks (desiccation cracks? expansion cracks?) which may be a clue. Note also the apparent collapse features (appear to be subdued craters, but maybe not?) nearby. All likely relating to the same set of causes or conditions. Hoping for stereo imagery in the near future, giving us a 3D perspective.
My intuition says giant sand worms.
Perfect for inflates-the rim keeps it seated.
Hypothesis: The cones were caused by bubbling magma, as Robert surmised, while the cracks are subsidence cracks formed as the surface material slumped into the space below. The terrain in the area is pockmarked, but the immediate area around the cones is relatively clear. Perhaps ejecta falling to the ground, but thrown up with enough force to fall a little distance away.