Martian glaciers below 30 degrees latitude
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on September 28, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). While it shows what looks like a somewhat typical Martian glacial flow pushing through a gap between hills, this glacial flow is not typical. It sits at just under 30 degrees north latitude, closer to the equator than almost any glacial feature on Mars. Moreover, the younger impact crater on top suggests this glacier has been here for some time. Though the impact is younger than the crater, it is not that young, as the dark streaks normally seen in the first years after impact are gone.
Thus, this glacier suggests that not only can near surface Martian ice exist closer than 30 degrees latitude from the equator, it can survive there for a considerable amount of time.
Nor is this glacial flow, so close to the equator, unusual for this region of Mars.
The white dot on the overview map to the right indicates the location of this glacier, flowing down from the south interior rim of an unnamed 25-mile-wide crater. The location is part of the easternmost part of Arabia Terra, the largest transition zone between the Martian northern lowland plains and the southern cratered highlands.
The two blue dots south of this crater however are two other craters with their own glacial features in their interiors, at 26.3 and 27.6 degrees north latitudes respectively. Even though this region is 500 miles south of glacier country, and closer to the equator than glaciers on Mars are generally found, here we have three craters with glacial fill.
Though the data is increasingly suggesting that the equatorial regions of Mars are very dry, with no ice close to the surface at all, these three glacial-filled craters are likely delineating the outside borders of this dry equatorial region.
These glaciers also suggest that elevation likely plays a part in allowing some equatorial ice to survive. The higher elevation here allows for colder temperatures. Future colonists on Mars will have to consider these factors in deciding where to build their colonies.
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 full image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on September 28, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). While it shows what looks like a somewhat typical Martian glacial flow pushing through a gap between hills, this glacial flow is not typical. It sits at just under 30 degrees north latitude, closer to the equator than almost any glacial feature on Mars. Moreover, the younger impact crater on top suggests this glacier has been here for some time. Though the impact is younger than the crater, it is not that young, as the dark streaks normally seen in the first years after impact are gone.
Thus, this glacier suggests that not only can near surface Martian ice exist closer than 30 degrees latitude from the equator, it can survive there for a considerable amount of time.
Nor is this glacial flow, so close to the equator, unusual for this region of Mars.
The white dot on the overview map to the right indicates the location of this glacier, flowing down from the south interior rim of an unnamed 25-mile-wide crater. The location is part of the easternmost part of Arabia Terra, the largest transition zone between the Martian northern lowland plains and the southern cratered highlands.
The two blue dots south of this crater however are two other craters with their own glacial features in their interiors, at 26.3 and 27.6 degrees north latitudes respectively. Even though this region is 500 miles south of glacier country, and closer to the equator than glaciers on Mars are generally found, here we have three craters with glacial fill.
Though the data is increasingly suggesting that the equatorial regions of Mars are very dry, with no ice close to the surface at all, these three glacial-filled craters are likely delineating the outside borders of this dry equatorial region.
These glaciers also suggest that elevation likely plays a part in allowing some equatorial ice to survive. The higher elevation here allows for colder temperatures. Future colonists on Mars will have to consider these factors in deciding where to build their colonies.
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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