Seepage coming from under an ancient Martian flood lava flow?
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on April 3, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
I have enhanced the image to make it easier to see the details. It appears we are looking at three layers. At the base (on the left side of the picture) is a relatively smooth bottom layer with the highest number of scattered craters. On the top (on the right side of the picture) is a somewhat rough layer with fewer craters.
In between is a middle layer that appears to be seeping out from under the top layer.
The science team seems to agree with my last guess, as they label this image “Possible basal seepage at flow boundary.” The flow boundary is the edge of a lava flood that scientists believe covered a distance of about 1,400 miles at speeds ranging from 10 to 45 miles per hour.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, on the very edge of that flood lava event (indicated in black) that poured out from the volcano Tharsis Tholus and quickly flooded the Kasei valley. The valley itself scientists believe was first formed by catastrophic floods of water coming from the south. One theory holds that these floods at least once produced the indicated lake, held back initially by an ice dam which after breaking caused the water to thunder downstream and shape the braided exit canyons of Kasei.
What is this basal layer however? Are the scientists suggesting that there is underground near-surface ice under that top flood lava layer which is seeping out from its western margin? The location is deep within the Martian dry tropics, so finding any near surface ice would be a significant discovery.
It is more likely that this middle layer is simply lava from an earlier eruption that got covered over by the later flood. Because lava in the lighter Martian gravity is believed to flow faster and more like water, both flows could have followed the grade downhill without filling the valley floor from side to side, thus leaving these upraised margins at their edges.
If not however the finding of near surface ice at this location would be of some geological importance.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. 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:
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Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on April 3, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
I have enhanced the image to make it easier to see the details. It appears we are looking at three layers. At the base (on the left side of the picture) is a relatively smooth bottom layer with the highest number of scattered craters. On the top (on the right side of the picture) is a somewhat rough layer with fewer craters.
In between is a middle layer that appears to be seeping out from under the top layer.
The science team seems to agree with my last guess, as they label this image “Possible basal seepage at flow boundary.” The flow boundary is the edge of a lava flood that scientists believe covered a distance of about 1,400 miles at speeds ranging from 10 to 45 miles per hour.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, on the very edge of that flood lava event (indicated in black) that poured out from the volcano Tharsis Tholus and quickly flooded the Kasei valley. The valley itself scientists believe was first formed by catastrophic floods of water coming from the south. One theory holds that these floods at least once produced the indicated lake, held back initially by an ice dam which after breaking caused the water to thunder downstream and shape the braided exit canyons of Kasei.
What is this basal layer however? Are the scientists suggesting that there is underground near-surface ice under that top flood lava layer which is seeping out from its western margin? The location is deep within the Martian dry tropics, so finding any near surface ice would be a significant discovery.
It is more likely that this middle layer is simply lava from an earlier eruption that got covered over by the later flood. Because lava in the lighter Martian gravity is believed to flow faster and more like water, both flows could have followed the grade downhill without filling the valley floor from side to side, thus leaving these upraised margins at their edges.
If not however the finding of near surface ice at this location would be of some geological importance.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. 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.
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