Splats on Mars!
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped and sharpened to post here, was taken on February 3, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows a number of crater splats of varying sizes. If you look at the full image, you will find several even bigger splats to the north of the one in the picture to the right. You will also see many more similar-sized crater splats to the south.
I cannot provide any confident explanation about what caused these splats, other than to assume that most here are secondary impacts from ejecta thrown out by a larger impact somewhere nearby. I also assume all these small impacts occurred at the same time because they all appear to have hit the ground when it had the same thick liquid consistency, a condition that was probably temporary. Note for example how many of the other craters in the full image do not have this same splattered look.
The location, at 6.6 degrees south latitude and indicated by the yellow dot north of the Spirit landing site on the overview map to the right, makes it difficult to explain the cause of the splats. This latitude, in the dry equatorial regions, means these are not glacial features, nor will we find any near surface ice here. The location instead appears to be on the edge of the Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest volcanic ash deposit on Mars. If that ash was once damp, like mud, then it might have splattered as we see here, but if so, it was quite a long time ago.
It is also possible that this location is outside Medusae Fossae, and if so than we are likely looking at a plain of flood lava, something that is ubiquitous in this volcanic region of Mars. If the main and secondary impacts happened to occur when that lava was still liquid, the result might have been these splats.
I am guessing however, as I don’t have enough information to make a truly informed hypothesis.
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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 original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped and sharpened to post here, was taken on February 3, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows a number of crater splats of varying sizes. If you look at the full image, you will find several even bigger splats to the north of the one in the picture to the right. You will also see many more similar-sized crater splats to the south.
I cannot provide any confident explanation about what caused these splats, other than to assume that most here are secondary impacts from ejecta thrown out by a larger impact somewhere nearby. I also assume all these small impacts occurred at the same time because they all appear to have hit the ground when it had the same thick liquid consistency, a condition that was probably temporary. Note for example how many of the other craters in the full image do not have this same splattered look.
The location, at 6.6 degrees south latitude and indicated by the yellow dot north of the Spirit landing site on the overview map to the right, makes it difficult to explain the cause of the splats. This latitude, in the dry equatorial regions, means these are not glacial features, nor will we find any near surface ice here. The location instead appears to be on the edge of the Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest volcanic ash deposit on Mars. If that ash was once damp, like mud, then it might have splattered as we see here, but if so, it was quite a long time ago.
It is also possible that this location is outside Medusae Fossae, and if so than we are likely looking at a plain of flood lava, something that is ubiquitous in this volcanic region of Mars. If the main and secondary impacts happened to occur when that lava was still liquid, the result might have been these splats.
I am guessing however, as I don’t have enough information to make a truly informed hypothesis.
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.
Perplexing, but I think you summed it up nicely. There are older craters with no splat and fully filled with smooth material, that are just low spots now, collecting Sandune‘s. (probably lava from the largest Impact crater at the top right that flooded the area creating a smooth plane?) or volcanic ash filling the older craters?… Or a fine dust (like powdered cement) that flowed like water?
There are a few impact craters that went splat over the top of other splats with a similar consistency. But they appear to be very thick on the edges that cast deep shadows…. and the material in the ejected splat is far more then the size and depth of the crater that caused it. Very perplexing.
(I would also note the slope streaks in the large crater, very numerous and fresh)