Glaciers everywhere in Mars’ glacier country
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and annotated to post here, was taken on August 24, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows glaciers apparently flowing down from two different mesas to the north and south.
The arrows indicate a major glacial stream coming from two directions. The many layered flow on the image’s upper right illustrates the many past climate cycles of Mars, with each subsequent period of snowfall and glacial growth producing progressively less ice. The chaotic region in the lower right marks what I think is the lowest point between the two mesas. Here the flows form eddies as the glaciers collide.
The overview map below shows us why there are so many glaciers at this spot on Mars.
The white cross marks this location, smack dab in the middle of the 2,000-mile-long mid-latitude strip I dub glacier country. Practically every MRO high resolution image of this region shows glacier features, as indicated by the inset. Each numbered black dot marks a previous MRO cool image showing glaciers. (Go here for links to these earlier images.) The red dot marks today’s picture. The entire surface of this region, from the tops of mesas to the canyon floors between, appear covered with ancient flowing ice.
At present the data suggests — but is not confirmed — that these glaciers are inactive. The present Martian climate, combined with the dust and debris that covers them, has allowed their past motion to be frozen and locked, now unchanging.
Someday that will change. The planet’s rotational tilt will shift, and either water from the poles will fall here as snow, causing the glaciers to flow downhill once again, or the temperature will warm and the ice will sublimate away, the glaciers shrinking as their water migrates back to fall as snow at the poles.
The region will also likely change, come the future, but not from climate change. Someday humans will be here, mining the ice for water.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. 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.
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Click for full image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and annotated to post here, was taken on August 24, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows glaciers apparently flowing down from two different mesas to the north and south.
The arrows indicate a major glacial stream coming from two directions. The many layered flow on the image’s upper right illustrates the many past climate cycles of Mars, with each subsequent period of snowfall and glacial growth producing progressively less ice. The chaotic region in the lower right marks what I think is the lowest point between the two mesas. Here the flows form eddies as the glaciers collide.
The overview map below shows us why there are so many glaciers at this spot on Mars.
The white cross marks this location, smack dab in the middle of the 2,000-mile-long mid-latitude strip I dub glacier country. Practically every MRO high resolution image of this region shows glacier features, as indicated by the inset. Each numbered black dot marks a previous MRO cool image showing glaciers. (Go here for links to these earlier images.) The red dot marks today’s picture. The entire surface of this region, from the tops of mesas to the canyon floors between, appear covered with ancient flowing ice.
At present the data suggests — but is not confirmed — that these glaciers are inactive. The present Martian climate, combined with the dust and debris that covers them, has allowed their past motion to be frozen and locked, now unchanging.
Someday that will change. The planet’s rotational tilt will shift, and either water from the poles will fall here as snow, causing the glaciers to flow downhill once again, or the temperature will warm and the ice will sublimate away, the glaciers shrinking as their water migrates back to fall as snow at the poles.
The region will also likely change, come the future, but not from climate change. Someday humans will be here, mining the ice for water.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. 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.
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