Rimstone dams in Mars’ youngest lava deposit
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on April 23, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The scientists dub the features here merely as “land forms,” probably because it is difficult to explain the origins of many of these strange features. For example, why is the half-mile-wide crater filled that knobby terrain, far different than the surrounding plains? Similarly, what caused the small meandering ridges (less than five feet high) that appear to closely resemble the cave formation called rimstone dams?
And why is this terrain so generally flat and smooth?
As usual, the overview map helps explains some of this, but not all.
On the overview map to the right, the white dot south of the giant shield volcano Elysium Mons and within the Athabasca Valles flood lava plain marks this location. We are looking at that young flood lava, with the white arrow indicating the direction of flow. The eddies south of the small hills on the right side of the image also points to a southward flow direction.
Athabasca erupted northeast of this spot about 20 million years ago, flowing to the southwest before dividing into two flows, one to the southeast and the second to the west. From the western flow another flow then branched off to the south, which this picture shows.
The rim of the knobby crater is only fifty feet high, but apparently that was enough to divert the flood lava around, so that the interior of this crater shows terrain that is older than Athabasca.
What caused the knobby interior of the crater remains to me a mystery. The rimstone dams might indicate the front of several overlaying lava flows, all heading south. The dams farthest south probably represent the longest and oldest flows, with later flows overlaying each but not going as far south, the dams marking where the flow stopped short..
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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.
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Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on April 23, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The scientists dub the features here merely as “land forms,” probably because it is difficult to explain the origins of many of these strange features. For example, why is the half-mile-wide crater filled that knobby terrain, far different than the surrounding plains? Similarly, what caused the small meandering ridges (less than five feet high) that appear to closely resemble the cave formation called rimstone dams?
And why is this terrain so generally flat and smooth?
As usual, the overview map helps explains some of this, but not all.
On the overview map to the right, the white dot south of the giant shield volcano Elysium Mons and within the Athabasca Valles flood lava plain marks this location. We are looking at that young flood lava, with the white arrow indicating the direction of flow. The eddies south of the small hills on the right side of the image also points to a southward flow direction.
Athabasca erupted northeast of this spot about 20 million years ago, flowing to the southwest before dividing into two flows, one to the southeast and the second to the west. From the western flow another flow then branched off to the south, which this picture shows.
The rim of the knobby crater is only fifty feet high, but apparently that was enough to divert the flood lava around, so that the interior of this crater shows terrain that is older than Athabasca.
What caused the knobby interior of the crater remains to me a mystery. The rimstone dams might indicate the front of several overlaying lava flows, all heading south. The dams farthest south probably represent the longest and oldest flows, with later flows overlaying each but not going as far south, the dams marking where the flow stopped short..
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.
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