Strange ridge ripples on the windswept plateau above Mars’ biggest canyon
Click for full image.
Today’s cool image is once again another of what I dub a “what the heck?” photo. The picture to the right, cropped to post here, was taken on December 17, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and captures some very strange ridges on the plateau above Mars’ biggest canyon, Valles Marineris.
The image, labeled merely as a “terrain sample,” was taken not as part of any specific research project but scheduled by MRO’s science team in order to maintain the camera’s temperature. When they do this they try to take pictures covering something interesting, but often it is a potshot that sometimes shows little of interest.
In this case the photo shows something very strange. The ridges in the sample are packed into one area only, but if you look at the full image you will see that they are also scattered about randomly and sometimes isolated on the flat plains surrounding this spot.
Interestingly, these ridges resemble the first “What the heck?” image I ever posted in 2019. That photo was located at about the same elevation as these ridges, but due west in the volcanic plains near Mars’s giant volcanoes and just off the western edge of the overview map below.
The white cross marks the location of these ridges, located in the isolated plateau formed by two branches of the giant Valles Marineris canyon.
With both today’s image and the 2019 one, the ridges are aligned, and only appear in patches.
At first glance the consistent ridge alignment suggests they might have been carved by some form of wind erosion, based on the long term direction of the prevailing winds. However, they do not look like sand dunes, as they are sharp and jagged. Moreover, if these are some form of ripple dunes, why are they found in patches, in some places but not others?
Maybe volcanism was involved in forming these ridges, though my limited geological knowledge is unaware of any volcanic process that might result in aligned ridges such as these.
I am sure a deep dive into the published literature of Martian geology will find some paper proposing an explanation, but for now I simply present these to my readers, so that you can scratch your heads as I do.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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.
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Click for full image.
Today’s cool image is once again another of what I dub a “what the heck?” photo. The picture to the right, cropped to post here, was taken on December 17, 2020 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and captures some very strange ridges on the plateau above Mars’ biggest canyon, Valles Marineris.
The image, labeled merely as a “terrain sample,” was taken not as part of any specific research project but scheduled by MRO’s science team in order to maintain the camera’s temperature. When they do this they try to take pictures covering something interesting, but often it is a potshot that sometimes shows little of interest.
In this case the photo shows something very strange. The ridges in the sample are packed into one area only, but if you look at the full image you will see that they are also scattered about randomly and sometimes isolated on the flat plains surrounding this spot.
Interestingly, these ridges resemble the first “What the heck?” image I ever posted in 2019. That photo was located at about the same elevation as these ridges, but due west in the volcanic plains near Mars’s giant volcanoes and just off the western edge of the overview map below.
The white cross marks the location of these ridges, located in the isolated plateau formed by two branches of the giant Valles Marineris canyon.
With both today’s image and the 2019 one, the ridges are aligned, and only appear in patches.
At first glance the consistent ridge alignment suggests they might have been carved by some form of wind erosion, based on the long term direction of the prevailing winds. However, they do not look like sand dunes, as they are sharp and jagged. Moreover, if these are some form of ripple dunes, why are they found in patches, in some places but not others?
Maybe volcanism was involved in forming these ridges, though my limited geological knowledge is unaware of any volcanic process that might result in aligned ridges such as these.
I am sure a deep dive into the published literature of Martian geology will find some paper proposing an explanation, but for now I simply present these to my readers, so that you can scratch your heads as I do.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
I love your “What the heck?” postings, Robert!
Considering the two sites you’ve pointed to here — the present one in the ridge astride Valles Marineris and your first posting in that genre from 2019 which you pointed to — the 2019 one in particular exhibits a series of ridges which are not only parallel to each other, but which, repeatedly hundreds of times, fork off sub-ridges at right angles. Is that typical behavior for sand dunes?
Looking at the very first “what the heck” picture, it seems to be an example of whatever process causes the “glass tubes on Mars” effect. This photo, not so much, as it’s occuring on an essentially flat plain. Logic suggests it must be caused by some sort of flow in one direction, be it water, wind, ice, Martian magma….. I also have absolutely no idea! What the heck!?!?;