Looking for avalanches on Mars
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on September 24, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The science team labels this as an “avalanche scarp”. At first glance it appears we are looking at a major mass wasting event flowing downward to cover the lighter banded terrain near the bottom of the picture.
The problem is that the overlying material didn’t move as an avalanche down onto that lighter material. Note that it has within it its own layers. To have flowed over that lower terrain it would have had to do that coherently, its many layers moving in unison. This doesn’t seem probable, though who knows considering the alien nature of Mars.
So what is going on? And why was this picture taken?
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, several hundred miles from the Martian north pole. This location, and that blob of layered overlying material, is part of the gigantic Olympia Undae sand dune sea, extending for thousands of miles in a great circle surrounding the north polar ice cap.
In fact, this location could very well be one source of that sand dune sea. Previous research has identified another point, indicated by the arrow, that is believed to be a major source of this sand, coming from the dust mixed with the ice in the many layers of the cap. As the ice sublimates away, the dust and sand falls downward, and over eons it is blown outward to form Olympia Undae.
The picture above was probably taken for two reasons. One, the researchers are likely hoping to gather enough data to determine if this is another source of that sand dune sea. It certainly appears possible, as it is tongue of that sea poking into the ice cap, similar to the first source.
Second, they are almost certainly monitoring that high scarp for any new avalanches. This section of the ice cap’s edge is known to produce hundreds to thousands of avalanches each day during the summer season, as the sun hits these scarps and causes the ice to sublimate away. In fact, avalanches on this very scarp was captured by MRO back in 2019, as they happened. The photo above was taken in the hopes of catching another.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on September 24, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The science team labels this as an “avalanche scarp”. At first glance it appears we are looking at a major mass wasting event flowing downward to cover the lighter banded terrain near the bottom of the picture.
The problem is that the overlying material didn’t move as an avalanche down onto that lighter material. Note that it has within it its own layers. To have flowed over that lower terrain it would have had to do that coherently, its many layers moving in unison. This doesn’t seem probable, though who knows considering the alien nature of Mars.
So what is going on? And why was this picture taken?
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, several hundred miles from the Martian north pole. This location, and that blob of layered overlying material, is part of the gigantic Olympia Undae sand dune sea, extending for thousands of miles in a great circle surrounding the north polar ice cap.
In fact, this location could very well be one source of that sand dune sea. Previous research has identified another point, indicated by the arrow, that is believed to be a major source of this sand, coming from the dust mixed with the ice in the many layers of the cap. As the ice sublimates away, the dust and sand falls downward, and over eons it is blown outward to form Olympia Undae.
The picture above was probably taken for two reasons. One, the researchers are likely hoping to gather enough data to determine if this is another source of that sand dune sea. It certainly appears possible, as it is tongue of that sea poking into the ice cap, similar to the first source.
Second, they are almost certainly monitoring that high scarp for any new avalanches. This section of the ice cap’s edge is known to produce hundreds to thousands of avalanches each day during the summer season, as the sun hits these scarps and causes the ice to sublimate away. In fact, avalanches on this very scarp was captured by MRO back in 2019, as they happened. The photo above was taken in the hopes of catching another.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News