Layers upon layers of Martian volcanic ash
Click for full image.
Today’s cool image provides I think a hint at the vast amount of time that has passed on Mars, allowing uncounted major events to occur which each lay down a bit of the geological history, a history that is now piled up on the surface so deeply that it will take decades of research to untangle it.
The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on December 23, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows the layered nature of the Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest volcanic ash deposit on Mars (about the land area of India) and thought by some to be the source of most of the dust across the entire red planet.
The white cross marks the location of this photo in the overview map to the right. The white blobs are quakes detected by the InSight lander’s seismometer 1,100 miles to the west. The black dots in the blobs are the quakes’ epicenters.
At 3 degrees south latitude this is in Mars’ dry equatorial regions. What we see here is a thick covering of ash many feet deep that over eons has been shaped and eroded by wind. The wind has not only carved these mesas, it has revealed that the ash was laid down in many distinct layers, suggesting that each layer was a different volcanic event.
We don’t know the volcano or volcanoes that produced each ash deposit, only that this immense ash deposit is well placed between all of Mars’ biggest volcanoes. However, that each layer was a different event, and that the events were likely far away, suggests that the events were massive, and many.
Mars was a very different place when these volcanoes were active. Moreover, that active period apparently lasted a very long time, probably exceeding a billion years. So long in fact that it is difficult for the human mind to grasp.
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.
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Click for full image.
Today’s cool image provides I think a hint at the vast amount of time that has passed on Mars, allowing uncounted major events to occur which each lay down a bit of the geological history, a history that is now piled up on the surface so deeply that it will take decades of research to untangle it.
The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on December 23, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows the layered nature of the Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest volcanic ash deposit on Mars (about the land area of India) and thought by some to be the source of most of the dust across the entire red planet.
The white cross marks the location of this photo in the overview map to the right. The white blobs are quakes detected by the InSight lander’s seismometer 1,100 miles to the west. The black dots in the blobs are the quakes’ epicenters.
At 3 degrees south latitude this is in Mars’ dry equatorial regions. What we see here is a thick covering of ash many feet deep that over eons has been shaped and eroded by wind. The wind has not only carved these mesas, it has revealed that the ash was laid down in many distinct layers, suggesting that each layer was a different volcanic event.
We don’t know the volcano or volcanoes that produced each ash deposit, only that this immense ash deposit is well placed between all of Mars’ biggest volcanoes. However, that each layer was a different event, and that the events were likely far away, suggests that the events were massive, and many.
Mars was a very different place when these volcanoes were active. Moreover, that active period apparently lasted a very long time, probably exceeding a billion years. So long in fact that it is difficult for the human mind to grasp.
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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