Slushy floor of southern Martian crater?
Click for full image.
The cool image to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, shows the northwest section of the floor of a crater in the southern cratered highlands of Mars, in a mountainous region dubbed Claritus Fossae, located south of Valles Marineris. The photo was taken by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on May 14, 2020.
The entire crater floor appears to be covered by these strings of closely-packed knobs, reminiscent of the brain terrain found in the mid-latitude glacial regions of Mars and thought to be the result of underground ice sublimating upward.
Below is the area in the white box, in full resolution.
To my eye this surface looks like a sheet of ice that has had hot water sprayed upon it, causing the spots where the droplets landed to melt. According to present theories, the melted spots here are instead caused when spots in the ice below the surface sublimate to a gas and pop upward, creating the depressions between the knobs. Think of the bubbles that rise in simmering tomato sauce.
Since the ice has apparently all softened, the upward popping gas does not have much problem breaking through. It is also helped by breaking through at weak points, likely the edges of multiple glacial layers (thus explaining the parallel alignments here). In a sense, we are looking a slushy ice, ready to vanish.
Why some mid-latitude glacial features look like this, while others more resemble Earth-type glaciers, remains a mystery.
The overview map to the right provides some geographic context. This crater is found at the white cross in Claritus Fossae.
Right now Mars’ rotational tilt, its obliquity, is similar to Earth’s at 25 degrees. This is also about the mid-point of the range of this obliquity, from 11 to 60 degrees. When the tilt is high, the poles are warmer than the mid-latitudes, and the water ice migrates from the former to the latter, making the glaciers active. When the tilt is low, the mid-latitude glaciers then sublimate away, their water migrating back to the poles.
It is believed that the glaciers and the poles are generally in a steady-state today, though if there is any trend it would have the mid-latitude glaciers disappearing and the poles growing. Possibly here the debris layer that usually protects Martian ice from sublimating has been blown away, allowing the ice to begin to disappear more quickly.
Or not. I am guessing. We need a closer, more detailed look to better understand Mars’ strange geology. We are only now beginning to get a real glimpse at it.
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
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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.
Click for full image.
The cool image to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, shows the northwest section of the floor of a crater in the southern cratered highlands of Mars, in a mountainous region dubbed Claritus Fossae, located south of Valles Marineris. The photo was taken by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on May 14, 2020.
The entire crater floor appears to be covered by these strings of closely-packed knobs, reminiscent of the brain terrain found in the mid-latitude glacial regions of Mars and thought to be the result of underground ice sublimating upward.
Below is the area in the white box, in full resolution.
To my eye this surface looks like a sheet of ice that has had hot water sprayed upon it, causing the spots where the droplets landed to melt. According to present theories, the melted spots here are instead caused when spots in the ice below the surface sublimate to a gas and pop upward, creating the depressions between the knobs. Think of the bubbles that rise in simmering tomato sauce.
Since the ice has apparently all softened, the upward popping gas does not have much problem breaking through. It is also helped by breaking through at weak points, likely the edges of multiple glacial layers (thus explaining the parallel alignments here). In a sense, we are looking a slushy ice, ready to vanish.
Why some mid-latitude glacial features look like this, while others more resemble Earth-type glaciers, remains a mystery.
The overview map to the right provides some geographic context. This crater is found at the white cross in Claritus Fossae.
Right now Mars’ rotational tilt, its obliquity, is similar to Earth’s at 25 degrees. This is also about the mid-point of the range of this obliquity, from 11 to 60 degrees. When the tilt is high, the poles are warmer than the mid-latitudes, and the water ice migrates from the former to the latter, making the glaciers active. When the tilt is low, the mid-latitude glaciers then sublimate away, their water migrating back to the poles.
It is believed that the glaciers and the poles are generally in a steady-state today, though if there is any trend it would have the mid-latitude glaciers disappearing and the poles growing. Possibly here the debris layer that usually protects Martian ice from sublimating has been blown away, allowing the ice to begin to disappear more quickly.
Or not. I am guessing. We need a closer, more detailed look to better understand Mars’ strange geology. We are only now beginning to get a real glimpse at it.
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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