Partly engulfed Martian craters
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on October 31, 2020. It shows a crater that appears buried in a sea of material so that pretty much the only thing visible is top of its rim.
The full image shows a second larger crater to the northwest that looks the same. In both cases the material fills the craters also fills the surrounding terrain.
Yet, both craters appear to be surrounded by a faint skirt of uplifted material.
What caused this situation?
The overview map to the right gives a clue. The crater, the black rectangle, is on the outermost slopes of the giant shield volcano Alba Mons. Rather than grow upward significantly, this volcano, which is relatively low for its width, spread outward over a vast region. Even though the above crater is about 600 miles from the volcano’s caldera, it is still within its vast shield.
Also, if you look closely at this crater as well as the larger one in the full image, you will see that both have breaks in their rims in the southeast and northwest quadrants, exactly in line with the direction of flow down from the volcano.
So is the material that surrounds and fills this crater lava from Alba Mons? Probably, but with a major caveat. The crater is located at 46 degrees north latitude, well within the mid-latitude bands where scientists have found lots of evidence of glacial features. Furthermore, the Starship candidate landing zone in Arcadia Planitia is only slightly off the west edge of this overview map, about 900 miles away, where scientists have found evidence of water ice very close to the surface almost everywhere they look.
Thus, we might also be looking at buried ice features here, likely sitting on top of the lava flows that are much older.
As for the skirts surrounding each crater, I suspect we are seeing a reflection of the underground ejecta blanket from the impacts, which likely hit ground with a lot of water ice, and thus produced a splattered look like the crater posted here. Later, lava covered everything, leaving only a hint of that splat.
Then again, none of my hypotheses above might be right. It is also possible that the craters could have been volcanic vents, and the lava came from within them. That would explain the skirts. I think this less likely, but what do I know?
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.
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on October 31, 2020. It shows a crater that appears buried in a sea of material so that pretty much the only thing visible is top of its rim.
The full image shows a second larger crater to the northwest that looks the same. In both cases the material fills the craters also fills the surrounding terrain.
Yet, both craters appear to be surrounded by a faint skirt of uplifted material.
What caused this situation?
The overview map to the right gives a clue. The crater, the black rectangle, is on the outermost slopes of the giant shield volcano Alba Mons. Rather than grow upward significantly, this volcano, which is relatively low for its width, spread outward over a vast region. Even though the above crater is about 600 miles from the volcano’s caldera, it is still within its vast shield.
Also, if you look closely at this crater as well as the larger one in the full image, you will see that both have breaks in their rims in the southeast and northwest quadrants, exactly in line with the direction of flow down from the volcano.
So is the material that surrounds and fills this crater lava from Alba Mons? Probably, but with a major caveat. The crater is located at 46 degrees north latitude, well within the mid-latitude bands where scientists have found lots of evidence of glacial features. Furthermore, the Starship candidate landing zone in Arcadia Planitia is only slightly off the west edge of this overview map, about 900 miles away, where scientists have found evidence of water ice very close to the surface almost everywhere they look.
Thus, we might also be looking at buried ice features here, likely sitting on top of the lava flows that are much older.
As for the skirts surrounding each crater, I suspect we are seeing a reflection of the underground ejecta blanket from the impacts, which likely hit ground with a lot of water ice, and thus produced a splattered look like the crater posted here. Later, lava covered everything, leaving only a hint of that splat.
Then again, none of my hypotheses above might be right. It is also possible that the craters could have been volcanic vents, and the lava came from within them. That would explain the skirts. I think this less likely, but what do I know?
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.
“I think this less likely, but what do I know?”
Well, I know one thing: when I see UFO enthusiasts showing photographic “proof” of other-planetary structures that look a lot like man-(or alien)-made, I’ll know what the bigger context probably looks like and why it’s omitted! {^)