Martian ridge sticking up out of a lava flood plain
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on August 9, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and was featured today as this camera’s picture of the day. As today’s caption notes:
This observation focuses a ridge that is standing above the old lava surface of the floor of Echus Chasma. What is this ridge doing here? Is it preexisting material surrounded by lava? Is it material pushed up at a restraining bend? If the ridge is not lava, it may have colorful flanks.
The overview map below shows that this location in Echus Chasma is even more interesting, as some scientists believe it once also held a large lake.
The small white dot near the southern terminus of Echus Chasma marks the location of this ridge. The blue area in the Chasma is the theorized lake, held in by an ice dam (the white line). The black areas to the north mark a specific lava event the length of the Columbia River that came from Tharsis Thous and covered Kasei Valles in only a matter of weeks.
This image suggests that the southern parts of Kasei Valles, in Echus, also had their own flood lava events, events so extensive that the lava covered many surface features. The ridge thus could be the top of a much higher mountain that is now mostly hidden below the lava. It is also possible it is a lava extrusion pushed through a fissure.
Whether these volcanic events occurred before, during, or after the hypothesized lake is not known.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. The ebook can also be purchased direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on August 9, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and was featured today as this camera’s picture of the day. As today’s caption notes:
This observation focuses a ridge that is standing above the old lava surface of the floor of Echus Chasma. What is this ridge doing here? Is it preexisting material surrounded by lava? Is it material pushed up at a restraining bend? If the ridge is not lava, it may have colorful flanks.
The overview map below shows that this location in Echus Chasma is even more interesting, as some scientists believe it once also held a large lake.
The small white dot near the southern terminus of Echus Chasma marks the location of this ridge. The blue area in the Chasma is the theorized lake, held in by an ice dam (the white line). The black areas to the north mark a specific lava event the length of the Columbia River that came from Tharsis Thous and covered Kasei Valles in only a matter of weeks.
This image suggests that the southern parts of Kasei Valles, in Echus, also had their own flood lava events, events so extensive that the lava covered many surface features. The ridge thus could be the top of a much higher mountain that is now mostly hidden below the lava. It is also possible it is a lava extrusion pushed through a fissure.
Whether these volcanic events occurred before, during, or after the hypothesized lake is not known.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. The ebook can also be purchased direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
More of God’s doodling.
Curious if the size (medium-to-small), and density (high, but mostly small craters) give an indication of the age of the feature. Looks like a flood lava event, and maybe not all that old.