Mars’ largest mountain region
Click for original image.
The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on September 21, 2015 by the context camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). I originally was going to post a high resolution image of some of these mountains, taken on January 1, 2023 that showed some slope streaks, but quickly realized that a wider view of this mountain region was a much more interesting story.
This picture covers an area about 50 by 50 miles. As you can see, it is endless series of random hills ridges and peaks, with only a vague hint of a northeast to southwest alignment. Ground travel through this region would be slow and twisty, immediately reminding me of my many trips to West Virginia, where the hills and valleys are almost as random and never ending.
The overview map below however suggests the scale of this region exceeds West Virginia many times over.
The black box in the overview map to the right marks the approximate area covered by this image, in the northern section of the mountainous region dubbed Lycus Sulci. Overall, Lycus Sulci is about 1,400 miles wide and about 1,800 miles long (about two-thirds the size of the continental United States), and features the same kind of endless hills across its entire extent. As JPL scientists have noted,
Lycus Sulci is a low lying area of ridges and valleys found to the northwest of Olympus Mons. It is not yet understood how this feature formed or how it relates to the formation of Olympus Mons itself.
Lycus Sulci is almost entirely located in the dry equatorial regions of Mars, so we will find little ice here. Whether is endless hills and canyons were formed in the past by ice, water, or lava — or some combination of all three — remains a mystery yet to be solved. What is clear is that this region is going to be difficult to explore and settle, and when it finally is settled it will likely become like all mountainous regions on Earth, a safe haven for those who don’t like to be told what to do.
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 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
Click for original image.
The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on September 21, 2015 by the context camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). I originally was going to post a high resolution image of some of these mountains, taken on January 1, 2023 that showed some slope streaks, but quickly realized that a wider view of this mountain region was a much more interesting story.
This picture covers an area about 50 by 50 miles. As you can see, it is endless series of random hills ridges and peaks, with only a vague hint of a northeast to southwest alignment. Ground travel through this region would be slow and twisty, immediately reminding me of my many trips to West Virginia, where the hills and valleys are almost as random and never ending.
The overview map below however suggests the scale of this region exceeds West Virginia many times over.
The black box in the overview map to the right marks the approximate area covered by this image, in the northern section of the mountainous region dubbed Lycus Sulci. Overall, Lycus Sulci is about 1,400 miles wide and about 1,800 miles long (about two-thirds the size of the continental United States), and features the same kind of endless hills across its entire extent. As JPL scientists have noted,
Lycus Sulci is a low lying area of ridges and valleys found to the northwest of Olympus Mons. It is not yet understood how this feature formed or how it relates to the formation of Olympus Mons itself.
Lycus Sulci is almost entirely located in the dry equatorial regions of Mars, so we will find little ice here. Whether is endless hills and canyons were formed in the past by ice, water, or lava — or some combination of all three — remains a mystery yet to be solved. What is clear is that this region is going to be difficult to explore and settle, and when it finally is settled it will likely become like all mountainous regions on Earth, a safe haven for those who don’t like to be told what to do.
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 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
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