Corroding glacier in crater rim gully?
Click for full image.
Today’s cool image to the right, rotated and cropped to post here, shows a gully flowing down the north facing rim of a 30-mile-wide crater in the southern cratered highlands. It was taken on June 30, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
To my eye the corroded ridges and pits running down the western side of this gully look like a corroded ice, as if we are looking at a glacier that the light of the Sun, which in the southern hemisphere hits this north-facing slope more directly and for longer periods of time, is causing it to sublimate away with time.
The wider shot below shows the entire rim, flowing downhill from the south to the north.
The material above the rim also appears to be glacial, at least superficially, in that the canyon floors all appear to be filled with buried ice, with a general flow downhill towards this particular gully.
All this is a pure guess on my part as a amateur planetary scientist, and should not be taken very seriously. The latitude however, 43 degrees south, lends weight to my suppositions.
Regardless, the gully suggests the potential for seasonal changes from year to year. Unfortunately, scientists have not done this, likely because there are far too many similar good targets on Mars. This image is the first high resolution image taken of this gully by MRO.
The crater itself is located on the western edge of Icaria Planum, a relatively flat plain about 350 miles wide in the southern cratered highlands and located about 1,200 miles south of Arsia Mons and Valles Marineris.
The overview map to the right gives the context. The tiny white box on the western edge of Icaria Planum indicates this crater’s location.
This location is also at the southern edge of the Tharsis Bulge, where all of Mars’ biggest volcanoes are located. Thus, what we see here could also be volcanic in nature, or at least shaped initially by lava flows and impact, then overlain by glacial material and windblown sand and dust later.
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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 full image.
Today’s cool image to the right, rotated and cropped to post here, shows a gully flowing down the north facing rim of a 30-mile-wide crater in the southern cratered highlands. It was taken on June 30, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
To my eye the corroded ridges and pits running down the western side of this gully look like a corroded ice, as if we are looking at a glacier that the light of the Sun, which in the southern hemisphere hits this north-facing slope more directly and for longer periods of time, is causing it to sublimate away with time.
The wider shot below shows the entire rim, flowing downhill from the south to the north.
The material above the rim also appears to be glacial, at least superficially, in that the canyon floors all appear to be filled with buried ice, with a general flow downhill towards this particular gully.
All this is a pure guess on my part as a amateur planetary scientist, and should not be taken very seriously. The latitude however, 43 degrees south, lends weight to my suppositions.
Regardless, the gully suggests the potential for seasonal changes from year to year. Unfortunately, scientists have not done this, likely because there are far too many similar good targets on Mars. This image is the first high resolution image taken of this gully by MRO.
The crater itself is located on the western edge of Icaria Planum, a relatively flat plain about 350 miles wide in the southern cratered highlands and located about 1,200 miles south of Arsia Mons and Valles Marineris.
The overview map to the right gives the context. The tiny white box on the western edge of Icaria Planum indicates this crater’s location.
This location is also at the southern edge of the Tharsis Bulge, where all of Mars’ biggest volcanoes are located. Thus, what we see here could also be volcanic in nature, or at least shaped initially by lava flows and impact, then overlain by glacial material and windblown sand and dust 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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