Land of stucco and lava-filled cracks
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The picture on the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in December 2018 and released earlier this year. It shows a filled fault/fissure in a region dubbed Cereberus Palus, located south of the giant volcano Elysium Mons and to the west of Olympus Mons. This region is also biggest and most extensive sections of the transition zone between Mars’s southern highlands and the northern lowlands. This area however is so far from the lowlands its geology is more likely influenced more by the volcanism that created Elysium Mons to the north.
The overview map to the right illustrates this geography, with the black square indicating the location of this image.
The image itself strengthens my uneducated conclusion. This region of Cereberus Palus is filled with many faults, cracks caused as the terrain was stretched by the rising volcano. In some cases, as shown here, the cracks became filled with lava from below, as indicated by the lighter color of the material in those filled cracks..
What struck me most about this image was the terrain on the picture’s right. Looks exactly like the stucco on the outside of my house. It is as if a plasterer came by before the lava solidified and ran his putty knife over the surface to create the multiple small ridges.
It is worthwhile checking out the full resolution image. The details are especially intriguing.
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.
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5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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Click for full image.
Cool image time! The picture on the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in December 2018 and released earlier this year. It shows a filled fault/fissure in a region dubbed Cereberus Palus, located south of the giant volcano Elysium Mons and to the west of Olympus Mons. This region is also biggest and most extensive sections of the transition zone between Mars’s southern highlands and the northern lowlands. This area however is so far from the lowlands its geology is more likely influenced more by the volcanism that created Elysium Mons to the north.
The overview map to the right illustrates this geography, with the black square indicating the location of this image.
The image itself strengthens my uneducated conclusion. This region of Cereberus Palus is filled with many faults, cracks caused as the terrain was stretched by the rising volcano. In some cases, as shown here, the cracks became filled with lava from below, as indicated by the lighter color of the material in those filled cracks..
What struck me most about this image was the terrain on the picture’s right. Looks exactly like the stucco on the outside of my house. It is as if a plasterer came by before the lava solidified and ran his putty knife over the surface to create the multiple small ridges.
It is worthwhile checking out the full resolution image. The details are especially intriguing.
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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