Ice volcano in the Martian high northern latitudes?
Click for original image.
That the Martian surface becomes increasingly icy as one approaches its poles is becoming increasingly evident from orbital images. Today’s cool image provides us another data point.
The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on January 4, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It is once again another terrain sample image, taken not as part of any particular research project but to fill a gap in the camera’s schedule so as to maintain its temperature. With such pictures, it is hard to predict what will be seen, though the scientists try to find interesting things. In this case the camera team succeeded quite nicely, capturing what appears to me to be a small volcano with two calderas.
This volcano however has almost certainly not spouted lava but mud and water.
The picture is located at 60 degrees north latitude, well north of the 30 degree latitude line that marks the limit of near ice features on the Martian surface. The white dot on the map below marks this volcano’s location, north of Utopia Basin, the largest impact basin on Mars where many glacial and ice features are found. The white outlined regions are dense with many glaciers. The 30 degree hatched lines delineate the dry equatorial regions.
What makes these ice features different here is that the ice appears hard and solid. Rather than splatter or flow, features common farther south within the basin, the ice here cracks.
We do not know the makeup of the material that formed the apron around these icy calderas. While almost certainly impregnated with water ice, dry ice and mud could also be components. For example, this picture was taken in the spring. The thin mantle of dry ice that covers most everything from 60 degrees latitude and above at both Martian poles during the winter is at this moment beginning to sublimate away. Some of the features here likely include that disappearing mantle. Its seasonal appearance might in itself contribute to shaping this ice volcano.
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
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P.O.Box 1262
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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 original image.
That the Martian surface becomes increasingly icy as one approaches its poles is becoming increasingly evident from orbital images. Today’s cool image provides us another data point.
The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on January 4, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It is once again another terrain sample image, taken not as part of any particular research project but to fill a gap in the camera’s schedule so as to maintain its temperature. With such pictures, it is hard to predict what will be seen, though the scientists try to find interesting things. In this case the camera team succeeded quite nicely, capturing what appears to me to be a small volcano with two calderas.
This volcano however has almost certainly not spouted lava but mud and water.
The picture is located at 60 degrees north latitude, well north of the 30 degree latitude line that marks the limit of near ice features on the Martian surface. The white dot on the map below marks this volcano’s location, north of Utopia Basin, the largest impact basin on Mars where many glacial and ice features are found. The white outlined regions are dense with many glaciers. The 30 degree hatched lines delineate the dry equatorial regions.
What makes these ice features different here is that the ice appears hard and solid. Rather than splatter or flow, features common farther south within the basin, the ice here cracks.
We do not know the makeup of the material that formed the apron around these icy calderas. While almost certainly impregnated with water ice, dry ice and mud could also be components. For example, this picture was taken in the spring. The thin mantle of dry ice that covers most everything from 60 degrees latitude and above at both Martian poles during the winter is at this moment beginning to sublimate away. Some of the features here likely include that disappearing mantle. Its seasonal appearance might in itself contribute to shaping this ice volcano.
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.
Marvin and K-9 on sking trip with all those Instant Martians