Puzzling fractures on Mars
Cool image time! Today the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) science team released another month’s worth of images from the spacecraft’s high resolution camera. The picture on the right, reduced in resolution to post here, was the first image that I took a close look at, and decided it was worth posting immediately. If you click on the image you can see the full resolution version.
This image lacks a caption, but the release webpage is titled “Fractured Crater Floor.” It shows several cross-crossing fissures, some wide enough for dust to gather within into sand dunes. The fractures themselves appear to be cutting across a bulging dome.
My first reaction was to wonder where the heck this crater was on Mars, how big was it, and how dominate were the fractures within its floor. The image itself does not answer any of these questions. The fractures could be filling the floor, or not, and the crater could be small or big. Moreover, its location might help explain the cause of the fractures.
To understand any of the images from MRO it is always important to zoom out to get some context.
The white cross on the overview image to the right shows the location of this crater, to the east of Marineris Valles on the high southern plateau that forms much of the planet’s southern hemisphere.
The crater itself is actually somewhat large. The photograph on the right, cropped, reduced, and annotated to post here, was taken by different camera on MRO, and shows the entire western half of the crater. If you click on the image you can see the full photograph. The white box indicates the approximate location of the fractures in the image above. From this image it looks as if the crater’s floor actually bulged upward post impact, causing the fractures as the pressure pushed up from below.
MRO has taken a lot of images of this crater’s floor. It appears the planetary scientists are intrigued by these fractures, and possibly are wondering if they and the bulging crater floor are evidence of later volcanic activity. This is made even more intriguing in that few other large craters in this region have the same type features. Why should this particular crater look so uniquely different?
The area to the east of this crater generally appears featureless, but MRO scientists have taken a lot of images in that area as well. My first thought was this area might have been considered a candidate landing site for one of the landers or orbiters either on their way or soon to be launched to Mars. I did some quick checking however and was unable to confirm this.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
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.
Cool image time! Today the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) science team released another month’s worth of images from the spacecraft’s high resolution camera. The picture on the right, reduced in resolution to post here, was the first image that I took a close look at, and decided it was worth posting immediately. If you click on the image you can see the full resolution version.
This image lacks a caption, but the release webpage is titled “Fractured Crater Floor.” It shows several cross-crossing fissures, some wide enough for dust to gather within into sand dunes. The fractures themselves appear to be cutting across a bulging dome.
My first reaction was to wonder where the heck this crater was on Mars, how big was it, and how dominate were the fractures within its floor. The image itself does not answer any of these questions. The fractures could be filling the floor, or not, and the crater could be small or big. Moreover, its location might help explain the cause of the fractures.
To understand any of the images from MRO it is always important to zoom out to get some context.
The white cross on the overview image to the right shows the location of this crater, to the east of Marineris Valles on the high southern plateau that forms much of the planet’s southern hemisphere.
The crater itself is actually somewhat large. The photograph on the right, cropped, reduced, and annotated to post here, was taken by different camera on MRO, and shows the entire western half of the crater. If you click on the image you can see the full photograph. The white box indicates the approximate location of the fractures in the image above. From this image it looks as if the crater’s floor actually bulged upward post impact, causing the fractures as the pressure pushed up from below.
MRO has taken a lot of images of this crater’s floor. It appears the planetary scientists are intrigued by these fractures, and possibly are wondering if they and the bulging crater floor are evidence of later volcanic activity. This is made even more intriguing in that few other large craters in this region have the same type features. Why should this particular crater look so uniquely different?
The area to the east of this crater generally appears featureless, but MRO scientists have taken a lot of images in that area as well. My first thought was this area might have been considered a candidate landing site for one of the landers or orbiters either on their way or soon to be launched to Mars. I did some quick checking however and was unable to confirm this.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
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.
I blame anthropogenic climate change.
Every time I see those red squares I am torn between targeted imagery for immediate benefits and an OCD compulsion for a systematic survey that starts in one spot and images everything in the most efficient way that is quicker over time but not as useful in the short term. It is really a shame we don’t already have a constellation of satellites at Mars by now. Hopefully, this will all change soon.
Yes, Floor Fractured Craters are formed when magma upwells through impact induced fractures. Not enough magma to completely flood the crater. But still enough to more or less cause the floor to float, fracture and spread out.
https://sciencetrends.com/lunar-floor-fractured-craters-provide-evidence-for-ancient-magmatic-intrusions/