Seasonal frost in a gully on Mars
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo on the right, cropped, reduced, and brightened slightly to post here, was part of the April image release from the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). According to the titled of this release, it purports to show visible frost on what looks like an avalanche debris slope on the rim of a large crater. The frost is the bright streaks on the upper left of the slope.
I wonder. During last month’s 50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas, there was one paper that I reported on that showed something very similar to this, and proposed that white streaks like this in a gully were actually exposed snow/ice. They proposed that the snow/ice was normally covered by dust, and the white streaks were where the dust had blown away to reveal the ice below. This in turn would then sublimate into gas, which in turn would cause the gully avalanches over time.
Below is a close-up of the white streaks on this rim.
In this case the white streaks do appear to be on top of the avalanche debris, which is different than the paper I reference above. There, the streaks looked more like exposed white areas on the smooth slopes above the debris. This difference might explain why the scientists here think this is frost, not exposed buried ice/snow.
That water frost can settle on the surface of Martian slope is intriguing. The slope is in the southern hemisphere and is south facing, which means this slope gets considerably less sunlight. This cold environment will allow frost to gather and remain.
I wonder if there is enough of this kind of frost for future colonists to be able to use. At a minimum, I could see such frost as a survival tool. Imagine you are a Martian prospector, out in the wild, looking for resources you can mine. This frost might be an easy source of water in a very dry desert environment.
Science fiction writers take note!
Readers!
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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.
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:
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Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo on the right, cropped, reduced, and brightened slightly to post here, was part of the April image release from the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). According to the titled of this release, it purports to show visible frost on what looks like an avalanche debris slope on the rim of a large crater. The frost is the bright streaks on the upper left of the slope.
I wonder. During last month’s 50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas, there was one paper that I reported on that showed something very similar to this, and proposed that white streaks like this in a gully were actually exposed snow/ice. They proposed that the snow/ice was normally covered by dust, and the white streaks were where the dust had blown away to reveal the ice below. This in turn would then sublimate into gas, which in turn would cause the gully avalanches over time.
Below is a close-up of the white streaks on this rim.
In this case the white streaks do appear to be on top of the avalanche debris, which is different than the paper I reference above. There, the streaks looked more like exposed white areas on the smooth slopes above the debris. This difference might explain why the scientists here think this is frost, not exposed buried ice/snow.
That water frost can settle on the surface of Martian slope is intriguing. The slope is in the southern hemisphere and is south facing, which means this slope gets considerably less sunlight. This cold environment will allow frost to gather and remain.
I wonder if there is enough of this kind of frost for future colonists to be able to use. At a minimum, I could see such frost as a survival tool. Imagine you are a Martian prospector, out in the wild, looking for resources you can mine. This frost might be an easy source of water in a very dry desert environment.
Science fiction writers take note!
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.
This is a good catch, there are deep gullies and ravines eroded at the top of the picture which deposits like a delta on top of the avalanche debris. This is where the ice occurs in the picture. I would note that this also could be salt deposits from evaporated ice/or water from seepage in the crater wall.
At the bottom of the original picture appears to have mudflows with more frost/salt on the leading edges (or the gravity side) of the dunes at the bottom of the slope.
Lots of dust devil tracks indicates warm/cold dynamics occurring in the crater.
The most significant part of the picture is the erosion that formed gullies and delta build up deposits that could not of happened without a “fluid liquid” at some point of Mars history. The evidence for subterranean water is strong.