Mars will be mystery until we can walk its surface
Click for original image.
Today’s cool image illustrates starkly the limitations of orbital imagery. The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on March 30, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows flow features inside a depression that strongly resemble glacial features, with the downhill grade roughly heading south.
Such features are seen in many places on Mars, almost always in the 30 to 60 degree mid-latitude bands in both the northern and southern hemispheres (see here, here, and here for just three examples. For many more simply search this website using “glacier” or “glacial feature” as search terms).
The problem is that this location is not within that 30 to 60 degree latitude band. In fact, at this location no near surface ice should exist at all.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, inside a 45-mile-long depression about a thousand feet deep that sits on the northwestern slopes of the giant volcano Arsia Mons. The black dots mark the locations of the many cave pits that have so far been located in this region.
The latitude here is 7.5 degrees south, placing this deep inside the dry equatorial region of Mars, where no near surface ice has been found.
So is this a major discovery of glaciers on the high slopes of Arsia? Maybe. Early orbital data had found evidence of past glacial activity on Arsia Mons, especially on its western slopes. Furthermore, a seasonal long cloud forms each spring and summer over Arsia, flowing westward, that some suggest could be water ice sublimating away from leftover underground ice deposits from that past glacial activity.
Or maybe not. We might simply be looking at frozen Martian lava deposited in this depression when Arsia Mons was an active volcano. The parallel lines might be indicating multiple eruptions laid down one after another on top of each other. It is also possible that Martian lava flows mimic some glacial features once frozen.
So is this frozen lava or near surface ice? Orbital data not available to me might clarify this question, but I guarantee it will not answer it definitively. The only way we can know for certain is to go there, walk the surface, and take samples. A robotic rover or helicopter might do it, but it would do so slowly and with some uncertainty.
Put a person there with a rock hammer and the question would be answered in just a few hours.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
Click for original image.
Today’s cool image illustrates starkly the limitations of orbital imagery. The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on March 30, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows flow features inside a depression that strongly resemble glacial features, with the downhill grade roughly heading south.
Such features are seen in many places on Mars, almost always in the 30 to 60 degree mid-latitude bands in both the northern and southern hemispheres (see here, here, and here for just three examples. For many more simply search this website using “glacier” or “glacial feature” as search terms).
The problem is that this location is not within that 30 to 60 degree latitude band. In fact, at this location no near surface ice should exist at all.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, inside a 45-mile-long depression about a thousand feet deep that sits on the northwestern slopes of the giant volcano Arsia Mons. The black dots mark the locations of the many cave pits that have so far been located in this region.
The latitude here is 7.5 degrees south, placing this deep inside the dry equatorial region of Mars, where no near surface ice has been found.
So is this a major discovery of glaciers on the high slopes of Arsia? Maybe. Early orbital data had found evidence of past glacial activity on Arsia Mons, especially on its western slopes. Furthermore, a seasonal long cloud forms each spring and summer over Arsia, flowing westward, that some suggest could be water ice sublimating away from leftover underground ice deposits from that past glacial activity.
Or maybe not. We might simply be looking at frozen Martian lava deposited in this depression when Arsia Mons was an active volcano. The parallel lines might be indicating multiple eruptions laid down one after another on top of each other. It is also possible that Martian lava flows mimic some glacial features once frozen.
So is this frozen lava or near surface ice? Orbital data not available to me might clarify this question, but I guarantee it will not answer it definitively. The only way we can know for certain is to go there, walk the surface, and take samples. A robotic rover or helicopter might do it, but it would do so slowly and with some uncertainty.
Put a person there with a rock hammer and the question would be answered in just a few hours.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
“”In fact, at this location no near surface ice should exist at all.””
One of my favorite phrases from Robert Zimmerman: The uncertainty of science.
The real scientific method was taught to me many, many moons ago. Some of my best teachers & professors would say: (this) we know; (this other thing) is a maybe; and finally – we have no idea, for many things.
Perhaps the real ‘consensus’ in science should be – What the Hell is That?