Endless dunes amidst Mars’ giant volcanoes
Click for originial image.
Past cool images on Behind the Black showing endless dune fields on Mars have generally focused on two places, the giant Medusae Fossae Formation volcanic ash deposits in the dry equatorial regions of Mars and the Olympia Undae dune sea that surrounds the Martian north pole.
Today’s image to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, takes us to a completely different dune sea. Taken on February 14, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), the picture also shows an endless dune sea, though there is faint evidence on those dune fields of buried features, such as the meandering east-west feature in the picture’s center.
This dune sea is also in the dry equatorial regions, like Medusae, but it is much farther east, and sits surrounded by Mars’ biggest volcanoes.
The white dot south of Olympus Mons and west of the three other great volcanoes marks the location of this picture. The white box outlines the whole dune field itself, which is about 100 miles long its greatest cross section.
A MRO context camera image taken on January 3, 2010 covers about two-thirds of this entire dune field, revealing its almost level nature. Except for the dunes, the terrain here is almost as flat as a tabletop. That flatness suggests strongly that we are looking at a lava flood plain which had poured out from one of the nearby giant volcanoes, or from the large fissure vents to the southwest and and northeast.
The sand dune sea was probably deposited later, and is likely made up of volcanic ash from those eruptions, or volcanic dust eroded off the lava by wind over the eons. Whether those dunes are now solid and unmoving, or still made of dust that are shifted over time by the wind, is probably the main scientific question that needs answering. Since this however is the first high resolution image taken of this entire dune field, that question cannot yet be answered, because we don’t yet have comparison images over time.
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:
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Click for originial image.
Past cool images on Behind the Black showing endless dune fields on Mars have generally focused on two places, the giant Medusae Fossae Formation volcanic ash deposits in the dry equatorial regions of Mars and the Olympia Undae dune sea that surrounds the Martian north pole.
Today’s image to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, takes us to a completely different dune sea. Taken on February 14, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), the picture also shows an endless dune sea, though there is faint evidence on those dune fields of buried features, such as the meandering east-west feature in the picture’s center.
This dune sea is also in the dry equatorial regions, like Medusae, but it is much farther east, and sits surrounded by Mars’ biggest volcanoes.
The white dot south of Olympus Mons and west of the three other great volcanoes marks the location of this picture. The white box outlines the whole dune field itself, which is about 100 miles long its greatest cross section.
A MRO context camera image taken on January 3, 2010 covers about two-thirds of this entire dune field, revealing its almost level nature. Except for the dunes, the terrain here is almost as flat as a tabletop. That flatness suggests strongly that we are looking at a lava flood plain which had poured out from one of the nearby giant volcanoes, or from the large fissure vents to the southwest and and northeast.
The sand dune sea was probably deposited later, and is likely made up of volcanic ash from those eruptions, or volcanic dust eroded off the lava by wind over the eons. Whether those dunes are now solid and unmoving, or still made of dust that are shifted over time by the wind, is probably the main scientific question that needs answering. Since this however is the first high resolution image taken of this entire dune field, that question cannot yet be answered, because we don’t yet have comparison images over time.
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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