Ice-filled craters in Mars’ glacier country?
Click for full image.
Today’s cool image returns us to the chaos region dubbed Protonilus Mensae, the middle of three adjacent mensae regions in the northern hemisphere that I like to dub Mars’ glacier country because there is so much evidence of buried ice there.
The photo to the right, cropped to post here, was taken on May 31, 2021 by the high resolution camera of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Titled “Layered Feature in Crater in Protonilus Mensae,” the section I have posted focuses on several craters, with the one with the central mesa likely the picture’s target. Based on many similar features found in craters in this region, it is somewhat safe to assume that this mesa is made of buried ice.
The overview map below as always provides the context.
The red box marks the location of this particular picture. The numbered black boxes indicate cool images in this region that I have previously featured:
- 1. Buried glaciers flowing off of Martian mesa
- 2. Brain Terrain on Mars
- 3. How to spot a glacier on Mars
- 4. Glacier country on Mars
- 5. Revisiting Mars’ glacier country
- 6. Back to Mars’ glacier country
- 7. A cracking Martian glacier?
I’ve noted this previously, but almost every high resolution picture taken by MRO in this region shows some evidence of glacial features. The accumulating images above illustrate this point.
It is very possible that the mesa in this crater is not glacial. However, the soft look of all the craters in this picture, including the full image, suggest an ice-rich terrain with that ice close to the surface.
The global map below gives a wider context, for those planning their own Mars colonization project.
Click for high resolution version.
The two hatched lines at 30 degrees north and south indicate the closest to the equator such glacial features have been identified. The areas outlined in white note regions like Protonilus Mensae where glacial features dominate.
Where would you land? SpaceX is favoring Amazonis Planitia, because it is both flat and ice-rich. I might prefer western Utopia Basin, because it also appears ice rich, is flat, and is relatively close to glacier country as well as a very mineral rich region due north of Perseverance’s landing site in the transition zone between the northern lowlands and the cratered southern highlands.
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.
Click for full image.
Today’s cool image returns us to the chaos region dubbed Protonilus Mensae, the middle of three adjacent mensae regions in the northern hemisphere that I like to dub Mars’ glacier country because there is so much evidence of buried ice there.
The photo to the right, cropped to post here, was taken on May 31, 2021 by the high resolution camera of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Titled “Layered Feature in Crater in Protonilus Mensae,” the section I have posted focuses on several craters, with the one with the central mesa likely the picture’s target. Based on many similar features found in craters in this region, it is somewhat safe to assume that this mesa is made of buried ice.
The overview map below as always provides the context.
The red box marks the location of this particular picture. The numbered black boxes indicate cool images in this region that I have previously featured:
- 1. Buried glaciers flowing off of Martian mesa
- 2. Brain Terrain on Mars
- 3. How to spot a glacier on Mars
- 4. Glacier country on Mars
- 5. Revisiting Mars’ glacier country
- 6. Back to Mars’ glacier country
- 7. A cracking Martian glacier?
I’ve noted this previously, but almost every high resolution picture taken by MRO in this region shows some evidence of glacial features. The accumulating images above illustrate this point.
It is very possible that the mesa in this crater is not glacial. However, the soft look of all the craters in this picture, including the full image, suggest an ice-rich terrain with that ice close to the surface.
The global map below gives a wider context, for those planning their own Mars colonization project.
Click for high resolution version.
The two hatched lines at 30 degrees north and south indicate the closest to the equator such glacial features have been identified. The areas outlined in white note regions like Protonilus Mensae where glacial features dominate.
Where would you land? SpaceX is favoring Amazonis Planitia, because it is both flat and ice-rich. I might prefer western Utopia Basin, because it also appears ice rich, is flat, and is relatively close to glacier country as well as a very mineral rich region due north of Perseverance’s landing site in the transition zone between the northern lowlands and the cratered southern highlands.
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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