Chaos in the southern cratered highlands of Mars
Click for full image.vi
Today’s cool image takes us to a part of the cratered southern highlands of Mars that I have not featured much previously. The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on March 7, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what appears to be a collection of rough hills and mesas surrounded by a sea of smooth ground that at the base of the cliffs seems to end abruptly.
The smooth ground is probably mantled by a layer of dust and debris. Since this location is at 36 degrees south latitude, there is also probably near surface ice under that layer. The abrupt edges likely indicate where the increasing slope next to the mesas and mounds caused that ice to be exposed and thus sublimate away.
As for the location, we must go to the overview map.
The black dot inside the outlined region dubbed Ariadne Colles marks the location of these hills, deep within the southern cratered highlands east of Hellas Basin. Recently I focused on the southern cratered highlands, but west of Hellas Basin. Few cool images previously have highlighted cratered highlands to the east.
As described in this Mars Express image release, Ariadne Colles is a region of chaos terrain, though unlike chaos terrain found elsewhere on Mars here its mesas are significantly eroded, producing a wider scattering of mounds and hills.
This part of the southern cratered highlands appears to have several similar scattered patches of chaos terrain. See for example this September 2020 cool image showing a patch about 300 miles to the west. Like today’s mounds, those hills are also surrounded by eroded smooth terrain.
I suspect a look at more images in this part of the cratered highlands will reveal many similar features, and like almost everywhere on Mars in the mid-latitude bands from 30 to 60 degrees latitude there will be features suggesting glaciers.
Readers!
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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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
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Click for full image.vi
Today’s cool image takes us to a part of the cratered southern highlands of Mars that I have not featured much previously. The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on March 7, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what appears to be a collection of rough hills and mesas surrounded by a sea of smooth ground that at the base of the cliffs seems to end abruptly.
The smooth ground is probably mantled by a layer of dust and debris. Since this location is at 36 degrees south latitude, there is also probably near surface ice under that layer. The abrupt edges likely indicate where the increasing slope next to the mesas and mounds caused that ice to be exposed and thus sublimate away.
As for the location, we must go to the overview map.
The black dot inside the outlined region dubbed Ariadne Colles marks the location of these hills, deep within the southern cratered highlands east of Hellas Basin. Recently I focused on the southern cratered highlands, but west of Hellas Basin. Few cool images previously have highlighted cratered highlands to the east.
As described in this Mars Express image release, Ariadne Colles is a region of chaos terrain, though unlike chaos terrain found elsewhere on Mars here its mesas are significantly eroded, producing a wider scattering of mounds and hills.
This part of the southern cratered highlands appears to have several similar scattered patches of chaos terrain. See for example this September 2020 cool image showing a patch about 300 miles to the west. Like today’s mounds, those hills are also surrounded by eroded smooth terrain.
I suspect a look at more images in this part of the cratered highlands will reveal many similar features, and like almost everywhere on Mars in the mid-latitude bands from 30 to 60 degrees latitude there will be features suggesting glaciers.
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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