Strange terrain at the Martian equator
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped to post here, was taken on January 29, 2022 by the high resolution camera of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows a small portion of the floor of 41-mile-wide Tuskegee Crater, sitting at the Martian equator on the rim of the outlet to the giant canyon Valles Marineris.
I have purposely focused on a section of the color strip, because of its strange green color. Most MRO images are reddish (indicating dust) or blue (indicating coarse rocks or ice). Green seems to me to be rare, and in fact is not even mentioned in the MRO science’s team explanation [pdf] of the colors the instrument produces. Since green is neither dust nor ice, this suggests some form of hard bedrock, with a mineralogy that produces that color.
The overview map below gives some context.
The white dot just south of the equator marks the location of Tuskegee Crater. The full image above covers a small relatively flat section in the crater floor’s northwest quadrant between a small interior crater to the west and the crater’s central peak to the east.
At this latitude, 2.7 degrees south, scientists have so far found no evidence of underground ice. Thus, the surface features here, as suggested by the green color, are either bedrock or old impact melt. What shaped these features into these strange shapes however is beyond my pay grade to explain. A first wild guess would propose these are the remains of melted lava that froze soon after the initial impact or the impact of that nearby interior small crater. Having been preserved for eons by being buried, this impact lava has now been exposed and further eroded by wind.
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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.
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Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped to post here, was taken on January 29, 2022 by the high resolution camera of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows a small portion of the floor of 41-mile-wide Tuskegee Crater, sitting at the Martian equator on the rim of the outlet to the giant canyon Valles Marineris.
I have purposely focused on a section of the color strip, because of its strange green color. Most MRO images are reddish (indicating dust) or blue (indicating coarse rocks or ice). Green seems to me to be rare, and in fact is not even mentioned in the MRO science’s team explanation [pdf] of the colors the instrument produces. Since green is neither dust nor ice, this suggests some form of hard bedrock, with a mineralogy that produces that color.
The overview map below gives some context.
The white dot just south of the equator marks the location of Tuskegee Crater. The full image above covers a small relatively flat section in the crater floor’s northwest quadrant between a small interior crater to the west and the crater’s central peak to the east.
At this latitude, 2.7 degrees south, scientists have so far found no evidence of underground ice. Thus, the surface features here, as suggested by the green color, are either bedrock or old impact melt. What shaped these features into these strange shapes however is beyond my pay grade to explain. A first wild guess would propose these are the remains of melted lava that froze soon after the initial impact or the impact of that nearby interior small crater. Having been preserved for eons by being buried, this impact lava has now been exposed and further eroded by wind.
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.
Had a look at the enlarged color image. Obviously canals.
I found the upper section more interesting. There appears to be a crater along an escarpment. The ground immediately below the cliff is heavily cratered; the ground above, moderately so. The escarpment has almost no craters.
Perhaps you have commented on this feature?
Blair Ivey: I have not commented on the features near the top of the full image. Some thoughts however:
1. The escarpment is a ridge inside the crater. The north rim of Tuskegee Crater is beyond the top edge of this photo by a few miles. To get the context quickly, go to the image’s main page (the link under the image date) and zoom in on the context map near the bottom of the page. You will see what part of the crater floor the photo covers.
2. The small craters (which are actually both sides of the ridge) might be from impact, but I wonder if some are related to erosion of impact melt, leaving behind a pock-marked surface. Many of those depressions are from impact, likely secondaries from the small crater just to the west, its eastern rim just visible near the bottom left of the photo.
3. The lack of small craters on the ridge could be for many reasons. I would be merely guessing. Not enough information to guess intelligently.
Is there an associated CRISM scene? Some of the color HiRISE scenes over phyllosilicate bearing terrains can have a green color.
Bill Farrand: You should be more capable than I in answering this question. Also, can you give us more details on what phyllosilicate bearing terrains are?