Ice-filled fissure on Mars?
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on February 15, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The science team labeled this a “Terrain Sample”, which suggests but doesn’t guarantee that it was to fill a gap in the camera’s schedule in order to maintain that camera’s proper temperature, and therefore was targeted at a relatively random but potentially interesting location.
What we see is a fissure canyon, about 250 to 300 feet deep with cliffs about 125 high, that appears surrounded and even filled with icelike features. Even the craters on the plateau above the canyon appear like they either impacted in ice, or have since been filled and eroded by that ice.
But is it ice?
The black dot inside the inset on the overview map to the right marks this location. At 41 degrees south latitude, it would not be surprising if MRO captured a fissure at this latitude filled with ice. Nor would it be surprising if the plains above that fissure also showed evidence of a near-surface ice sheet. This picture shows evidence of both, with the bumpy look to the ice sheets suggesting some sublimation process causing that ice sheet to become deformed in this manner.
The fissure itself appears to be a crack caused by the rise of the Tharsis Bulge, the lava flood plain on Mars where three of the planet’s biggest shield volcanoes are located. This crack is near the southern fringe of Tharsis. In the inset you can see a second parallel fissure to the northwest, also likely created by the rise of that bulge.
This picture once again strengthens the hypothesis that Mars is an icy planet, a desert more like Antarctica than the Sahara. The closer to the poles you get, the more likely every image will invoke evidence of ice.
Readers!
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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 original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on February 15, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The science team labeled this a “Terrain Sample”, which suggests but doesn’t guarantee that it was to fill a gap in the camera’s schedule in order to maintain that camera’s proper temperature, and therefore was targeted at a relatively random but potentially interesting location.
What we see is a fissure canyon, about 250 to 300 feet deep with cliffs about 125 high, that appears surrounded and even filled with icelike features. Even the craters on the plateau above the canyon appear like they either impacted in ice, or have since been filled and eroded by that ice.
But is it ice?
The black dot inside the inset on the overview map to the right marks this location. At 41 degrees south latitude, it would not be surprising if MRO captured a fissure at this latitude filled with ice. Nor would it be surprising if the plains above that fissure also showed evidence of a near-surface ice sheet. This picture shows evidence of both, with the bumpy look to the ice sheets suggesting some sublimation process causing that ice sheet to become deformed in this manner.
The fissure itself appears to be a crack caused by the rise of the Tharsis Bulge, the lava flood plain on Mars where three of the planet’s biggest shield volcanoes are located. This crack is near the southern fringe of Tharsis. In the inset you can see a second parallel fissure to the northwest, also likely created by the rise of that bulge.
This picture once again strengthens the hypothesis that Mars is an icy planet, a desert more like Antarctica than the Sahara. The closer to the poles you get, the more likely every image will invoke evidence of ice.
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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