Changing Martian slope streaks
Click here, here, and here for original images.
Time for some cool images from Mars taken over a dozen years! The three pictures above were taken, from left to right, in 2012, 2020, and 2024 and show the same exact Martian terrain. The first two pictures were photographed by the lower resolution context camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The rightmost picture was taken on May 20, 2024 by MRO’s high resolution camera.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, in the middle of the vast lava flood plains found between Mars’ giant volcanos and north of the Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest volcanic ash deposit on Mars. The 1,200-foot-high mesa pictured above, its peak indicated by the red dot, is part of a group of such mesas that either represent the peaks of a mountain range now mostly buried by lava, or volcanic vents pushed up when those eruptions were occurring more than a billion years ago.
The focus of these pictures however is not volcanism, but the numerous slope streaks seen on the mesa slopes. Note how the 2012 earliest streaks are still visible in 2024, but have faded. Note also how there appears to have been no new streaks since 2020.
Slope streaks are a geological feature unique to Mars that at the moment remain unexplained. At first glance they appear to be a landslide of some kind, but years of orbital study has shown they do not change the topography at all, they never have debris piles at their base, and the streaks even sometimes actually flow up and over small rises in the slopes. They occur randomly throughout the year, and as seen above, over time fade.
Recent research has suggested their formation is related to dust avalanches triggered by dust storms, conclusions that are strengthened by the fact that slope streaks are generally found on dusty slopes, which in this case makes sense as the location is in the dry Martian tropics. That these dust avalanches do not change the topography at all, merely staining it, while sometimes actually flowing up and over rises, illustrates how Mars’ one-third gravity and thin, cold atmosphere makes things happen that are impossible on Earth.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Click here, here, and here for original images.
Time for some cool images from Mars taken over a dozen years! The three pictures above were taken, from left to right, in 2012, 2020, and 2024 and show the same exact Martian terrain. The first two pictures were photographed by the lower resolution context camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The rightmost picture was taken on May 20, 2024 by MRO’s high resolution camera.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, in the middle of the vast lava flood plains found between Mars’ giant volcanos and north of the Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest volcanic ash deposit on Mars. The 1,200-foot-high mesa pictured above, its peak indicated by the red dot, is part of a group of such mesas that either represent the peaks of a mountain range now mostly buried by lava, or volcanic vents pushed up when those eruptions were occurring more than a billion years ago.
The focus of these pictures however is not volcanism, but the numerous slope streaks seen on the mesa slopes. Note how the 2012 earliest streaks are still visible in 2024, but have faded. Note also how there appears to have been no new streaks since 2020.
Slope streaks are a geological feature unique to Mars that at the moment remain unexplained. At first glance they appear to be a landslide of some kind, but years of orbital study has shown they do not change the topography at all, they never have debris piles at their base, and the streaks even sometimes actually flow up and over small rises in the slopes. They occur randomly throughout the year, and as seen above, over time fade.
Recent research has suggested their formation is related to dust avalanches triggered by dust storms, conclusions that are strengthened by the fact that slope streaks are generally found on dusty slopes, which in this case makes sense as the location is in the dry Martian tropics. That these dust avalanches do not change the topography at all, merely staining it, while sometimes actually flowing up and over rises, illustrates how Mars’ one-third gravity and thin, cold atmosphere makes things happen that are impossible on Earth.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
The description of its unusual nature reminds me of a description of super critical fluid. Which will flow uphill like a gas, and as it phase changes, it leaves behind any material that it collected, as a solvent, on its way through a substance.
Like dry cleaning dirt and impurities from clothing.
Or the use of super critical fluid to extract Coffee then boil off with no Chemical residue, just pure product.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercritical_fluid
Carbon dioxide has one of the lowest temperature/pressure requirements to become super critical.