Dry barren ground in Martian northern lowlands?
Click for full image.
Today’s cool image is intriguing because of what appears to not be there, rather than what is there. The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on November 3, 2021 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
At first glance it appears to show a very dry, barren surface. At its base are many parallel grooves running from the southwest to the northeast. On top of these grooves are several more recent crater impacts, as well as several patches of higher bedrock that appears to have been hard enough to resist whatever erosion process caused the groves.
Yet, based on the overview map below, the location of this photo should not be dry and barren, but instead home to a near-surface ice sheet covering everything.
The red cross marks the location of today’s picture, practically in the center of Utopia Basin, Mars’ largest deep impact basin. The location is also at 37 degrees north latitude, in the mid-latitudes where scientists have found ample evidence of near-surface ice, either as glaciers inside craters or flowing down hollows and mesa walls, or as vast ice sheets that cause craters to warp and deform when formed.
At this location however there does not appear to be any evidence of near-surface ice. Instead, the parallel striations suggest that once a glacier flowed here, with the grooves suggesting the direction of flow as its base scratched the bedrock on which it sat, and which now is exposed and completely visible. The patches are places more resistant to that glacial ice flow, and was thus not eroded as the ice moved over it.
Yet, why is this spot so dry, compared to so much of the mid-latitudes where evidence of ice is so frequently found? Maybe past images gave a wrong impression. Maybe they were evidence of confirmation bias on my part, where because scientists are interested in the ice in the mid-latitudes their MRO images tended to favor locations where that ice is found, and thus gave me the incorrect impression that ice covered most of the mid-latitudes. Instead, maybe there is a lot of barren spots in the mid-latitudes, like this one.
Or maybe this barren spot is the exception that proves the rule. Or maybe it isn’t as barren as it appears at first glance, and there is buried ice here, though not obvious.
Your guess is as good as mine. Because at this moment much of what we are doing is guessing, based on the limited information available.
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 this year has the propaganda 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 refuse 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:
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Click for full image.
Today’s cool image is intriguing because of what appears to not be there, rather than what is there. The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on November 3, 2021 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
At first glance it appears to show a very dry, barren surface. At its base are many parallel grooves running from the southwest to the northeast. On top of these grooves are several more recent crater impacts, as well as several patches of higher bedrock that appears to have been hard enough to resist whatever erosion process caused the groves.
Yet, based on the overview map below, the location of this photo should not be dry and barren, but instead home to a near-surface ice sheet covering everything.
The red cross marks the location of today’s picture, practically in the center of Utopia Basin, Mars’ largest deep impact basin. The location is also at 37 degrees north latitude, in the mid-latitudes where scientists have found ample evidence of near-surface ice, either as glaciers inside craters or flowing down hollows and mesa walls, or as vast ice sheets that cause craters to warp and deform when formed.
At this location however there does not appear to be any evidence of near-surface ice. Instead, the parallel striations suggest that once a glacier flowed here, with the grooves suggesting the direction of flow as its base scratched the bedrock on which it sat, and which now is exposed and completely visible. The patches are places more resistant to that glacial ice flow, and was thus not eroded as the ice moved over it.
Yet, why is this spot so dry, compared to so much of the mid-latitudes where evidence of ice is so frequently found? Maybe past images gave a wrong impression. Maybe they were evidence of confirmation bias on my part, where because scientists are interested in the ice in the mid-latitudes their MRO images tended to favor locations where that ice is found, and thus gave me the incorrect impression that ice covered most of the mid-latitudes. Instead, maybe there is a lot of barren spots in the mid-latitudes, like this one.
Or maybe this barren spot is the exception that proves the rule. Or maybe it isn’t as barren as it appears at first glance, and there is buried ice here, though not obvious.
Your guess is as good as mine. Because at this moment much of what we are doing is guessing, based on the limited information available.
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 this year has the propaganda 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 refuse 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.
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