Cracking terraces in Valles Marineris
Click for original image.
Today’s cool image returns us to the truly spectacular terrain found on the floor of West Candor Chasma, one of the giant side canyons that form Valles Marineris, the biggest canyon in the solar system, many times larger than the Grand Canyon on Earth.
The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on January 5, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). On the overview map above its location is indicated by the red dot in the inset. The two green dots mark previous cool images from August 2022 and February 2024.
All three images show the same wild alternating dark and light terracing, suggesting many sedimentary layers like those seen in our Grand Canyon, but enhanced by the different erosion processes of the thin Martian atmosphere and its one-third Earth gravity.
The second image to the right zooms in on the area indicated by the rectangle. What makes this area doubly interesting are the cracks that appear to cut through the terraces. In the north-south crack it also appears that the terraces are now offset on each side of the crack.
Apparently, some event, likely an earthquake that occurred after the terraces formed, caused the ground to rip apart, with the earth shifting sideways on either side. Though the seismometer on the InSight lander detected no major quakes in this region, this image suggests they have occurred here, sometime in the past.
To give you a sense of scale, the canyon’s nearby rim to the west is about 14,000 higher, making that canyon wall two to three times taller than the walls of the Grand Canyon.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
Click for original image.
Today’s cool image returns us to the truly spectacular terrain found on the floor of West Candor Chasma, one of the giant side canyons that form Valles Marineris, the biggest canyon in the solar system, many times larger than the Grand Canyon on Earth.
The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on January 5, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). On the overview map above its location is indicated by the red dot in the inset. The two green dots mark previous cool images from August 2022 and February 2024.
All three images show the same wild alternating dark and light terracing, suggesting many sedimentary layers like those seen in our Grand Canyon, but enhanced by the different erosion processes of the thin Martian atmosphere and its one-third Earth gravity.
The second image to the right zooms in on the area indicated by the rectangle. What makes this area doubly interesting are the cracks that appear to cut through the terraces. In the north-south crack it also appears that the terraces are now offset on each side of the crack.
Apparently, some event, likely an earthquake that occurred after the terraces formed, caused the ground to rip apart, with the earth shifting sideways on either side. Though the seismometer on the InSight lander detected no major quakes in this region, this image suggests they have occurred here, sometime in the past.
To give you a sense of scale, the canyon’s nearby rim to the west is about 14,000 higher, making that canyon wall two to three times taller than the walls of the Grand Canyon.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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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