Glacial flows pushing out through a Martian crater rim
Click for full image.
Today’s cool image once again illustrates how Mars is far from a waterless planet. Instead, there is strong evidence that water ice can be found across most of the Red Planet’s surface, excluding the equatorial regions lower than 30 degrees latitude.
The photo to the right was taken on September 11, 2021 by the wide view context camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows a 6-mile-wide unnamed crater on Mars, located at 35 degrees south latitude, with what appears to be a glacier in its interior, flowing to the southwest towards several breaches in the crater’s southwest rim. Several of those breaches now sit higher than the flow, suggesting that the glacier itself was once higher and flowed out of those gaps. Now the level has dropped, and the only place the glacier exits the crater is the central gap at the center of the white rectangle.
That white rectangle marks the area covered by a recent MRO high resolution image, taken on March 29, 2022 and cropped and reduced to post below.
Click for full image.
The close-up clearly shows what looks like a very typical glacial flow exiting the crater at this gap and working its way to the southwest along the valley it has carved. The parallel lines visible on that valley’s southern slopes, as well as the older breaches to the north and south, further suggest that this glacier was once higher. Each line marks the passing of one Martian climate cycle, thought to be caused by the wide swings of the planet’s rotational tilt, from 11 to 60 degrees. When the planet’s tilt is low, the poles are warmer than the mid-latitudes. Water migrates from the poles to those mid-latitudes where it falls as snow on these glaciers to make them grow. When the planet’s tilt is high, the situation reverses, and the water sublimates from the mid-latitudes to the poles, and the glaciers begin to shrink.
Today, Mars is tilted 25 degrees, so scientists believe the situation is in a steady-state, with the glaciers neither growing nor shrinking.
The overview map to the right marks this crater’s location with the black cross. The cratered region to the east of Hellas Basin is one of several on Mars where scientists have detected large numbers of glacial features (see the global Mars map in this August 1, 2022 post). The photos of this crater are simply another example.
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.
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 full image.
Today’s cool image once again illustrates how Mars is far from a waterless planet. Instead, there is strong evidence that water ice can be found across most of the Red Planet’s surface, excluding the equatorial regions lower than 30 degrees latitude.
The photo to the right was taken on September 11, 2021 by the wide view context camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows a 6-mile-wide unnamed crater on Mars, located at 35 degrees south latitude, with what appears to be a glacier in its interior, flowing to the southwest towards several breaches in the crater’s southwest rim. Several of those breaches now sit higher than the flow, suggesting that the glacier itself was once higher and flowed out of those gaps. Now the level has dropped, and the only place the glacier exits the crater is the central gap at the center of the white rectangle.
That white rectangle marks the area covered by a recent MRO high resolution image, taken on March 29, 2022 and cropped and reduced to post below.
Click for full image.
The close-up clearly shows what looks like a very typical glacial flow exiting the crater at this gap and working its way to the southwest along the valley it has carved. The parallel lines visible on that valley’s southern slopes, as well as the older breaches to the north and south, further suggest that this glacier was once higher. Each line marks the passing of one Martian climate cycle, thought to be caused by the wide swings of the planet’s rotational tilt, from 11 to 60 degrees. When the planet’s tilt is low, the poles are warmer than the mid-latitudes. Water migrates from the poles to those mid-latitudes where it falls as snow on these glaciers to make them grow. When the planet’s tilt is high, the situation reverses, and the water sublimates from the mid-latitudes to the poles, and the glaciers begin to shrink.
Today, Mars is tilted 25 degrees, so scientists believe the situation is in a steady-state, with the glaciers neither growing nor shrinking.
The overview map to the right marks this crater’s location with the black cross. The cratered region to the east of Hellas Basin is one of several on Mars where scientists have detected large numbers of glacial features (see the global Mars map in this August 1, 2022 post). The photos of this crater are simply another example.
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.
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.
Great stuff !! Love the photos. Thanks Mr. Z.
Then again, Yellowstone Lake was observed rising with no apparent inflow some time ago.
How could that be they asked ? …… then.
Mars, the next national park ! as the tee shirts say.
Love it.
A.