Criss-crossing Martian ridges hit by new impacts
Click for full image.
The image to the right, cropped to post here, is a captioned photo from the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance orbiter and released today. From the caption:
The black spots [recent impacts] form because the craters exposed cleaner materials in the subsurface beneath the bright, dusty surface.
Our image is also interesting because the surface has a criss-cross pattern formed by wind activity. Bright ripples that are oriented from the upper right to the lower left are perpendicular to the wind flow. In contrast, outcrops that have been eroded by the wind are oriented perpendicular to the ripples to produce the criss-cross pattern we now observe.
The overview map below might also help explain this criss-cross pattern.
The caption notes that this image, indicated by the red cross, is located near the large meandering canyon dubbed Mangala Valles. What must also be realized is its proximity to both Mars’ giant volcanoes as well as the planet’s largest volcanic ash deposit, dubbed the Medusae Fossae Formation.
The darker northwest-to-southeast ridges appear to be ash deposits that are being eroded away by the wind, thus explaining their orientation parallel to the prevailing wind direction. If you go the Medusae Fossae link above, you will see from the cool image there the resemblance these ridges have to that eroding ash deposit.
The lighter northeast-to-southwest ridges appear to be the underlying bedrock, their orientation caused not by wind but by a more fundamental geological process related to the complex formation of Mangala Valles itself, as discussed in this paper [pdf]
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Click for full image.
The image to the right, cropped to post here, is a captioned photo from the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance orbiter and released today. From the caption:
The black spots [recent impacts] form because the craters exposed cleaner materials in the subsurface beneath the bright, dusty surface.
Our image is also interesting because the surface has a criss-cross pattern formed by wind activity. Bright ripples that are oriented from the upper right to the lower left are perpendicular to the wind flow. In contrast, outcrops that have been eroded by the wind are oriented perpendicular to the ripples to produce the criss-cross pattern we now observe.
The overview map below might also help explain this criss-cross pattern.
The caption notes that this image, indicated by the red cross, is located near the large meandering canyon dubbed Mangala Valles. What must also be realized is its proximity to both Mars’ giant volcanoes as well as the planet’s largest volcanic ash deposit, dubbed the Medusae Fossae Formation.
The darker northwest-to-southeast ridges appear to be ash deposits that are being eroded away by the wind, thus explaining their orientation parallel to the prevailing wind direction. If you go the Medusae Fossae link above, you will see from the cool image there the resemblance these ridges have to that eroding ash deposit.
The lighter northeast-to-southwest ridges appear to be the underlying bedrock, their orientation caused not by wind but by a more fundamental geological process related to the complex formation of Mangala Valles itself, as discussed in this paper [pdf]
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.
What is with the parabolic looking line at the foci?
pawn: That’s a great question. I hadn’t noticed it until you pointed it out.
I suspect that this double impact occurred at the same moment, probably because the asteroid broke in two as it barreled though Mars’ atmosphere. That line is probably the result of the collision of the blast waves from the two impacts, laying down a line on the ground. If the left impact was slightly larger it would explain the slight push towards the right.
Parabola could indicate direction of impact? This looks like a double impact (meteor brought a friend?) and possible interference between impact shock waves?
Is there possibly an earlier photo of the same spot? Occasionally they have caught really recent impacts, proven by earlier photos without impact scars. This looks very recent.
Robert, I agree. They might have been additive and disturbed the lighter shaded soil to a higher degree where they met. The additive condition of the shocks was at a single location (considering a hemisphere) that moved outwards as time went on resulting in a continuous “curve”.
Kinda weird (but Mars……)