Mars’ youngest lava flow
Click for full image.
Today’s cool image is in some ways another version of my last cool image yesterday. Both are in Mars’s volcano country. Both show what appears to be a lava flow.
Yesterday’s image showed the leftover evidence of a confined flow of lava running in a meandering pattern like a river, and was somewhat distant from the biggest nearby volcanoes. Today’s cool image, to the right and rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, is instead located smack dab on the inside of what is thought to be Mars’ youngest major lava event, the Athabasca flood lava plain, and in fact is near its outlet, when about 600 million years ago it belched out enough lava in just a matter of a few weeks to cover an area about the size of Great Britain.
The overview map below illustrates this.
The white dot marks the location. The northeast-to-southeast alignment of the parallel ridges also points directly back to the Athabasca outlet, coming from the southwest base of the nearest mountain chain to the northeast. The picture itself was taken on November 6, 2021 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It also shows that these parallel ridges cover a much larger area, and are actually part of a very wider flow that is clearly visible in wide MRO context camera images. If you look at the top half of this context camera picture, taken November 3, 2011, you can see that flow. It surrounded and passed a crater to the northeast, and then rushed downhill to the southwest, leaving these parallel ridges behind as evidence of that flow.
The purple-shaded area shows the full extent of the Athabasca flood plain. After traveling to the southwest it apparently split into two tributaries, with the bulk of the lava heading to the west.
One last note: The two small dark splotches on the image are likely relatively recent impacts that have not faded yet, as they usually do within a few Martian years.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
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.
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Click for full image.
Today’s cool image is in some ways another version of my last cool image yesterday. Both are in Mars’s volcano country. Both show what appears to be a lava flow.
Yesterday’s image showed the leftover evidence of a confined flow of lava running in a meandering pattern like a river, and was somewhat distant from the biggest nearby volcanoes. Today’s cool image, to the right and rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, is instead located smack dab on the inside of what is thought to be Mars’ youngest major lava event, the Athabasca flood lava plain, and in fact is near its outlet, when about 600 million years ago it belched out enough lava in just a matter of a few weeks to cover an area about the size of Great Britain.
The overview map below illustrates this.
The white dot marks the location. The northeast-to-southeast alignment of the parallel ridges also points directly back to the Athabasca outlet, coming from the southwest base of the nearest mountain chain to the northeast. The picture itself was taken on November 6, 2021 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It also shows that these parallel ridges cover a much larger area, and are actually part of a very wider flow that is clearly visible in wide MRO context camera images. If you look at the top half of this context camera picture, taken November 3, 2011, you can see that flow. It surrounded and passed a crater to the northeast, and then rushed downhill to the southwest, leaving these parallel ridges behind as evidence of that flow.
The purple-shaded area shows the full extent of the Athabasca flood plain. After traveling to the southwest it apparently split into two tributaries, with the bulk of the lava heading to the west.
One last note: The two small dark splotches on the image are likely relatively recent impacts that have not faded yet, as they usually do within a few Martian years.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
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.
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