Paisley terrain on Mars
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, is actually a somewhat old image from the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It was taken more than a decade ago, on December 28, 2010, and featured as a captioned image one month later. I post it now because it was recently featured as MRO’s picture of the day, and thought it deserved a new look. As the caption from 2010, written by planetary scientist Alfred McEwen, noted,
Remember those paisley shirts during the summer of love in 1967? If so, this terrain may look somewhat familiar.
How did this terrain really form? One theory is that it’s a landslide deposit, perhaps associated with draining an ancient lake.
The overview map below might help make sense of this theory.
The black box marks the location of this paisley terrain, on the southern slopes of 2,000-mile-long Valles Marineris, the biggest known canyon in the solar system. At this point the canyon is at its widest at about 200 miles across.
Being on those southern slopes suggests the landside theory has some merit. Then again, the slopes here extend for many tens of miles, which make their downward grade to the north somewhat uneven. The terrain itself also appears relatively flat, though in the full image there appears to be a slight downward trend to the northeast. Where are the landslides?
The feature could possibly be caused by wind-erosion. Maybe we are looking at the bottom of what was once a lake that is now eroding being exposed to wind and sun and seasonal climate changes Or not.
I did some digging and could find no studies of this geology. It remains a mystery for some future planetary geologist to decipher, possibly one who is right now in elementary school and will figure it out, on the surface of Mars itself.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. 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.
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, is actually a somewhat old image from the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It was taken more than a decade ago, on December 28, 2010, and featured as a captioned image one month later. I post it now because it was recently featured as MRO’s picture of the day, and thought it deserved a new look. As the caption from 2010, written by planetary scientist Alfred McEwen, noted,
Remember those paisley shirts during the summer of love in 1967? If so, this terrain may look somewhat familiar.
How did this terrain really form? One theory is that it’s a landslide deposit, perhaps associated with draining an ancient lake.
The overview map below might help make sense of this theory.
The black box marks the location of this paisley terrain, on the southern slopes of 2,000-mile-long Valles Marineris, the biggest known canyon in the solar system. At this point the canyon is at its widest at about 200 miles across.
Being on those southern slopes suggests the landside theory has some merit. Then again, the slopes here extend for many tens of miles, which make their downward grade to the north somewhat uneven. The terrain itself also appears relatively flat, though in the full image there appears to be a slight downward trend to the northeast. Where are the landslides?
The feature could possibly be caused by wind-erosion. Maybe we are looking at the bottom of what was once a lake that is now eroding being exposed to wind and sun and seasonal climate changes Or not.
I did some digging and could find no studies of this geology. It remains a mystery for some future planetary geologist to decipher, possibly one who is right now in elementary school and will figure it out, on the surface of Mars itself.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. 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.
Marvin and K-9 have places to play Hide and Seek with he Mars Rover