Megadunes in the giant canyon of Mars’ north polar icecap
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken by the high resolution camera of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on September 15, 2019, right at the beginning of summer at the north polar icecap of Mars.
Without a larger context it is very difficult to figure out what this image shows. The image title, “Seasonal Changes of Chasma Boreale Megadunes,” gives us some basic clues. The streaks of black and dark grey are giant dunes, with this image showing their trailing edge. The darkest streaks are likely places where the thin winter mantle of dry ice has begun to sublimate away with the coming of spring, exposing the darker sand dunes below. The surrounding flat white areas are either the permanent water ice of the icecap or the surface of the lowland northern plains that surround that icecap.
The montage below shows a series of monitoring photos, beginning in 2018 during the last Martian summer and continuing through the start and middle of the spring and ending with the photo above. It shows the seasonal evolution of that upper carbon dioxide dry ice mantle, which reveals the darker dunes below as that dry ice mantle sublimates away.
For the original images: February 11, 2018, June 3, 2019, August 8, 2019, September 15, 2019.
The location of these dunes is in itself intriguing. The white box on the map to the right shows their location, near the entrance to the giant polar canyon Chasma Boreale, 350 miles long with a width of about 75 miles at its beginning. The surrounding cliff walls rise around a mile on each side, giving scientists a glimpse into the many layers of the Martian water icecap.
These dunes appear to be marching out of the canyon, blown by the prevailing winds that are tunneled into Chasma Boreale as they blow off the cold surrounding icecap. Yet, if you look closely at the different images of the dunes, you will see that, except for the sublimating dry ice mantle, the leading edge of the dunes themselves show little change. While they have clearly moved as indicated sometime in the past, right now they are probably either cemented or crusted so that the thin Martian atmosphere does little to change them.
That is the situation today, when the planet’s inclination is similar to Earth’s, tilting about 25 degrees. Unlike the Earth, however, the inclination of Mars goes through large swings [pdf], from 0 degrees to as much as 60 degrees.
When that axial tilt was about 50 degrees (about 4 million years ago), as shown in the graph to the right, taken from the linked paper, the coldest parts of the planet were in the mid-latitudes and the polar regions were warmer. During that time period it is theorized that the water of Mars was shifting from the poles to the mid-latitudes, creating the buried glaciers we see today in those mid-latitudes.
During those earlier times these dunes could have also warmed enough to loosen and for the wind to move them, thus shaping them as we see them now.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
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Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken by the high resolution camera of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on September 15, 2019, right at the beginning of summer at the north polar icecap of Mars.
Without a larger context it is very difficult to figure out what this image shows. The image title, “Seasonal Changes of Chasma Boreale Megadunes,” gives us some basic clues. The streaks of black and dark grey are giant dunes, with this image showing their trailing edge. The darkest streaks are likely places where the thin winter mantle of dry ice has begun to sublimate away with the coming of spring, exposing the darker sand dunes below. The surrounding flat white areas are either the permanent water ice of the icecap or the surface of the lowland northern plains that surround that icecap.
The montage below shows a series of monitoring photos, beginning in 2018 during the last Martian summer and continuing through the start and middle of the spring and ending with the photo above. It shows the seasonal evolution of that upper carbon dioxide dry ice mantle, which reveals the darker dunes below as that dry ice mantle sublimates away.
For the original images: February 11, 2018, June 3, 2019, August 8, 2019, September 15, 2019.
The location of these dunes is in itself intriguing. The white box on the map to the right shows their location, near the entrance to the giant polar canyon Chasma Boreale, 350 miles long with a width of about 75 miles at its beginning. The surrounding cliff walls rise around a mile on each side, giving scientists a glimpse into the many layers of the Martian water icecap.
These dunes appear to be marching out of the canyon, blown by the prevailing winds that are tunneled into Chasma Boreale as they blow off the cold surrounding icecap. Yet, if you look closely at the different images of the dunes, you will see that, except for the sublimating dry ice mantle, the leading edge of the dunes themselves show little change. While they have clearly moved as indicated sometime in the past, right now they are probably either cemented or crusted so that the thin Martian atmosphere does little to change them.
That is the situation today, when the planet’s inclination is similar to Earth’s, tilting about 25 degrees. Unlike the Earth, however, the inclination of Mars goes through large swings [pdf], from 0 degrees to as much as 60 degrees.
When that axial tilt was about 50 degrees (about 4 million years ago), as shown in the graph to the right, taken from the linked paper, the coldest parts of the planet were in the mid-latitudes and the polar regions were warmer. During that time period it is theorized that the water of Mars was shifting from the poles to the mid-latitudes, creating the buried glaciers we see today in those mid-latitudes.
During those earlier times these dunes could have also warmed enough to loosen and for the wind to move them, thus shaping them as we see them now.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Similar to Milankovitch cycles here? Do you think the precessional forces could also show up in the mantle of the earth, moving the tectonic plates and contributing to volcanic magma pressures here?
(2nd)
ironbrian
ironbrian asked, ” Do you think the precessional forces could also show up in the mantle of the earth, moving the tectonic plates and contributing to volcanic magma pressures here?”
Haven’t the foggiest. And I doubt any scientists can say so with certainty either.
The changes in orbital configurations have generally been accepted as the cause of the ice ages on Earth, dubbed the Milankovitch cycles. On Mars those orbital configurations cycle through far more extreme cycles, and are now been considered as a serious factor in the long term changes in the Martian climate.
Much remains uncertain however. Be warned. We still know only a tiny amount about Mars. Any consensus can easily be shattered by a single new data point.
So could that be were Marvin the Nation gets all the water for his Instant Martians?