Glacial flows covering a crater on Mars?
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on March 4, 2021 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows an eroded mound that appears to have flows coming off its north and south slopes that fill the surrounding low spots, including half-covering a nearby crater.
The science team for MRO’s high resolution camera chose this picture as their April 28th picture of the day, noting the following:
The objective of this observation is to examine a crater which seems to be in the process of getting covered by flow from a mound. This image, in Protonilus Mensae, may show us characteristics of the covering material: could it be debris-covered glaciers?
Below is a global map of Mars, with this mound’s location in Protonilus Mensae in the northern mid-latitudes indicated by a black cross.
Click for high resolution clean version.
My regular readers will be very familiar with Protonilus Mensae, as well as the adjacent mensae regions Deuteronilus to the west and Nilosyrtis to the east. This February post about a different eroded mound in Deuteronilus, also surrounded by what look like glacial flows, outlines what is known about the many many many glacial-like features found in these regions of chaos terrain.
While it is not yet definitively proven that these flows are glaciers buried under a thin layer of protective debris, all the evidence so far accumulated points to that conclusion. Orbital ground-penetrating radar of these flows has consistently detected evidence of underground ice. Their features mimic glaciers seen on Earth. And their existence fits some of the more popular theories for explaining Mars’ long term geological and climate history.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on March 4, 2021 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows an eroded mound that appears to have flows coming off its north and south slopes that fill the surrounding low spots, including half-covering a nearby crater.
The science team for MRO’s high resolution camera chose this picture as their April 28th picture of the day, noting the following:
The objective of this observation is to examine a crater which seems to be in the process of getting covered by flow from a mound. This image, in Protonilus Mensae, may show us characteristics of the covering material: could it be debris-covered glaciers?
Below is a global map of Mars, with this mound’s location in Protonilus Mensae in the northern mid-latitudes indicated by a black cross.
Click for high resolution clean version.
My regular readers will be very familiar with Protonilus Mensae, as well as the adjacent mensae regions Deuteronilus to the west and Nilosyrtis to the east. This February post about a different eroded mound in Deuteronilus, also surrounded by what look like glacial flows, outlines what is known about the many many many glacial-like features found in these regions of chaos terrain.
While it is not yet definitively proven that these flows are glaciers buried under a thin layer of protective debris, all the evidence so far accumulated points to that conclusion. Orbital ground-penetrating radar of these flows has consistently detected evidence of underground ice. Their features mimic glaciers seen on Earth. And their existence fits some of the more popular theories for explaining Mars’ long term geological and climate history.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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