Melting rocks on Mars
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The image to the right, reduced, cropped, and annotated by me to post here, was part of the July image download from the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and was titled “Melt Pools around Mojave Crater”.
You can see that the flow began to the south, flowed northward (in the middle of the image), and then pooled in the two places as indicated. In the full photograph you can also see that the flow continued to the north, forming more pools.
The title to me suggests that this flow and the melt pools were lava, not ice. The low latitude, 7 degrees north, also suggests this is not ice. Though I was unable to reach the person who requested these images, it appears his research is aimed understanding the melt events that occur in the vicinity of craters upon impact. From his website:
Mechanisms for melt pool emplacement are not completely understood at present. They can be distinct to each terrestrial body and therefore an encompassing model for all bodies has been elusive. Because of Mars’ unique properties and location in the solar system, study of Martian melt pools can detail how influential impact velocity, impact angle, surface composition, topography, and atmosphere are to emplacement. For future study, the cool Martian temperatures can provide clues about emplacement on icy bodies.
In the case of these melt pools, their specific place on Mars is important. The white cross on the map on the right shows their location just to the southeast of the rim of Mohave Crater near the outlet from the vast Marinerins Valles canyon.
The crater itself is younger than Marineris Valles, since the impact clearly occurred after the catastrophic floods that formed these vast canyons and the intermittent ocean that is theorized to have filled these lowlands here and to the north. It also likely occurred well after most of the liquid was gone, as the crater is sharp and distinct, and does not appear to have been formed by a bolide pushing through deep water.
In fact, research about Mohave Crater suggests it is only three million years old, and might even be the source of many of the Mars meteorites that scientists have found on the Antarctic icecap.
What is intriguing about these flows however is their direction. Located to the southeast outside the crater, the flows however flow north toward the crater rim, flowing down from the large mesa to the south of Mohave. This suggests that the energy of the impact was enough to melt material on the cliffs of that mesa — about fifteen miles away — which then flowed downward to pool in the lowlands between the mesa and the crater.
Think about this. This relatively recent impact, long after the great bombardment in the early solar system, was powerful enough to melt rock more than a dozen miles away. Should something similar happen on Earth we would not be happy about it.
We do have one comforting thought: Mars’s location near the asteroid belt probably means it gets more frequent large impacts than Earth.
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 this year has the propaganda 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 refuse 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.
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5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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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.
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The image to the right, reduced, cropped, and annotated by me to post here, was part of the July image download from the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and was titled “Melt Pools around Mojave Crater”.
You can see that the flow began to the south, flowed northward (in the middle of the image), and then pooled in the two places as indicated. In the full photograph you can also see that the flow continued to the north, forming more pools.
The title to me suggests that this flow and the melt pools were lava, not ice. The low latitude, 7 degrees north, also suggests this is not ice. Though I was unable to reach the person who requested these images, it appears his research is aimed understanding the melt events that occur in the vicinity of craters upon impact. From his website:
Mechanisms for melt pool emplacement are not completely understood at present. They can be distinct to each terrestrial body and therefore an encompassing model for all bodies has been elusive. Because of Mars’ unique properties and location in the solar system, study of Martian melt pools can detail how influential impact velocity, impact angle, surface composition, topography, and atmosphere are to emplacement. For future study, the cool Martian temperatures can provide clues about emplacement on icy bodies.
In the case of these melt pools, their specific place on Mars is important. The white cross on the map on the right shows their location just to the southeast of the rim of Mohave Crater near the outlet from the vast Marinerins Valles canyon.
The crater itself is younger than Marineris Valles, since the impact clearly occurred after the catastrophic floods that formed these vast canyons and the intermittent ocean that is theorized to have filled these lowlands here and to the north. It also likely occurred well after most of the liquid was gone, as the crater is sharp and distinct, and does not appear to have been formed by a bolide pushing through deep water.
In fact, research about Mohave Crater suggests it is only three million years old, and might even be the source of many of the Mars meteorites that scientists have found on the Antarctic icecap.
What is intriguing about these flows however is their direction. Located to the southeast outside the crater, the flows however flow north toward the crater rim, flowing down from the large mesa to the south of Mohave. This suggests that the energy of the impact was enough to melt material on the cliffs of that mesa — about fifteen miles away — which then flowed downward to pool in the lowlands between the mesa and the crater.
Think about this. This relatively recent impact, long after the great bombardment in the early solar system, was powerful enough to melt rock more than a dozen miles away. Should something similar happen on Earth we would not be happy about it.
We do have one comforting thought: Mars’s location near the asteroid belt probably means it gets more frequent large impacts than Earth.
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 this year has the propaganda 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 refuse 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.
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