Ridge in Martian lowland plains
Click for original image.
Today’s cool image is interesting not because it shows us some spectacular Martian terrain, but because the most distinct feature is a thin ridge only a few feet high that pokes up out of the northern lowland plains for apparently no reason.
The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on July 1, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The ridge is about 1.8 miles long, and is only about five feet high on its western end, rising to about 25 feet on its eastern end.
The colors differences indicate that the ridge’s peak is likely bedrock, and the surrounding greenish/blue hue suggesting sand and rocks covered with dust. The ridge might be the top of a deeper buried topological feature but that is only a guess.
The red dot in the inset near the center of the overview map to the right marks this location. This tiny ridge sits just south of 30 degrees north latitude, which is generally the dividing line between the increasingly icy polar regions and the Martian dry equatorial tropics. There might be near surface ice here, but if so it is also likely deeper or of lower quantity.
The ground here is part of the drainage from the theorized catastrophic floods that are believed to have poured out of Valles Marineris in the distant past. If so, those floods hit this ridge at right angles. In fact, the image might even show us the aftereffects of that impact. The ridge appears broken near its center, as if that rush of water pushed through.
All guesses of course, likely wrong. We must also remember that no model as yet been developed that reasonably makes flowing liquid water even possible on the surface of Mars. The atmosphere was always either too thin or cold.
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.
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.
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4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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Click for original image.
Today’s cool image is interesting not because it shows us some spectacular Martian terrain, but because the most distinct feature is a thin ridge only a few feet high that pokes up out of the northern lowland plains for apparently no reason.
The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on July 1, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The ridge is about 1.8 miles long, and is only about five feet high on its western end, rising to about 25 feet on its eastern end.
The colors differences indicate that the ridge’s peak is likely bedrock, and the surrounding greenish/blue hue suggesting sand and rocks covered with dust. The ridge might be the top of a deeper buried topological feature but that is only a guess.
The red dot in the inset near the center of the overview map to the right marks this location. This tiny ridge sits just south of 30 degrees north latitude, which is generally the dividing line between the increasingly icy polar regions and the Martian dry equatorial tropics. There might be near surface ice here, but if so it is also likely deeper or of lower quantity.
The ground here is part of the drainage from the theorized catastrophic floods that are believed to have poured out of Valles Marineris in the distant past. If so, those floods hit this ridge at right angles. In fact, the image might even show us the aftereffects of that impact. The ridge appears broken near its center, as if that rush of water pushed through.
All guesses of course, likely wrong. We must also remember that no model as yet been developed that reasonably makes flowing liquid water even possible on the surface of Mars. The atmosphere was always either too thin or cold.
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.
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.
Again, thank you for not only the images, but also of the mysteries they show.
Are we doing this anywhere else? The spacecraft doesn’t seem _that_ large at about a ton.
Maybe when SLS gets cancelled (it really is just a matter of time), we can spend that money throwing these things across the solar system.
markedup2 asked, “Are we doing this anywhere else?”
Assuming you are asking about other orbiters around other planets, the answer these days is, generally no. Juno is in orbit around Jupiter, but its camera is low resolution and the mission is not focused at imaging the planet. We presently have no orbiters taking images at Mercury, Venus, Saturn or beyond. And the other Mars orbiters don’t take images with the high resolution of MRO.