Martian crater or mud caldera?
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on October 18, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The scientists only call this a “feature,” likely because they don’t wish to guess as to its nature without more data. However, the 2.5 mile wide splash apron around the central double crater certainly merits a closer look. That double crater could be from impact, but it also could be a caldera, with the apron the result of material that flowed from the caldera.
That there appear to be fewer craters on the apron than on the surrounding terrain strengthens this last hypothesis. The apron would have erased many earlier impact craters, resulting in this lower count.
The location however suggests that if this feature was volcanic in origin it might not have been spewing out magma.
The red dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, about 125 miles west of the landing spot where Mars Pathfinder landed its small Sojourner rover in 1997. This location is inside Chryse Planitia, the northern lowland plains where scientists think the catastrophic floods from Valles Marineris drained, as suggested by the many streamlined mesas that surround this feature. Those features suggest a flow to the north. From this and other data some scientists theorize an intermittent inland sea once existed south of here, with an interrimittent northern ocean to the north, left behind by those floods.
In other words, those floods likely left the ground in this region soaked with water/ice for a period of time, which means we might be looking at a mud volcano, not a lava volcano.
Today, this region is in the Martian dry equatorial regions, where little near surface ice is found. This feature suggests however that water/ice was once here.
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Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on October 18, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The scientists only call this a “feature,” likely because they don’t wish to guess as to its nature without more data. However, the 2.5 mile wide splash apron around the central double crater certainly merits a closer look. That double crater could be from impact, but it also could be a caldera, with the apron the result of material that flowed from the caldera.
That there appear to be fewer craters on the apron than on the surrounding terrain strengthens this last hypothesis. The apron would have erased many earlier impact craters, resulting in this lower count.
The location however suggests that if this feature was volcanic in origin it might not have been spewing out magma.
The red dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, about 125 miles west of the landing spot where Mars Pathfinder landed its small Sojourner rover in 1997. This location is inside Chryse Planitia, the northern lowland plains where scientists think the catastrophic floods from Valles Marineris drained, as suggested by the many streamlined mesas that surround this feature. Those features suggest a flow to the north. From this and other data some scientists theorize an intermittent inland sea once existed south of here, with an interrimittent northern ocean to the north, left behind by those floods.
In other words, those floods likely left the ground in this region soaked with water/ice for a period of time, which means we might be looking at a mud volcano, not a lava volcano.
Today, this region is in the Martian dry equatorial regions, where little near surface ice is found. This feature suggests however that water/ice was once here.
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.
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