Strings of Martian cones
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on May 25, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The scientists describe these cones as “longitudinally aligned cones,” but this is puzzling since the alignment runs from the northwest to the south east, not north-south along the longitude.
No matter. The alignment is in itself the mystery, especially because the full image shows many more strings of cones in this area, all running from the northwest to the southeast. The strings also are all curved in the same way, sagging to the southwest as if expressing a wave flowing in that direction.
What could create these strings of cones? The overview map below gives us a hint.
The white dot on the overview map to the right, about 1,000 miles east of the shield volcano Elysium Mons, marks the location of these cones. At 26 degrees north latitude, this is dry volcano country on Mars, where much of the plains surrounding Elysium are smooth flood lava. It appears that is what this terrain is as well, though what caused that flood lava to create these cones remains a mystery. Could they be an expression of topography covered by lava? If so, that doesn’t explain their alignment. Maybe the cones reveal underground fissures where lava could bubble up from below, but this also fails to explain their alignment.
As I have said numerous times before, Mars is wonderful, Mars is strange, but above all, Mars is alien.
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Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on May 25, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The scientists describe these cones as “longitudinally aligned cones,” but this is puzzling since the alignment runs from the northwest to the south east, not north-south along the longitude.
No matter. The alignment is in itself the mystery, especially because the full image shows many more strings of cones in this area, all running from the northwest to the southeast. The strings also are all curved in the same way, sagging to the southwest as if expressing a wave flowing in that direction.
What could create these strings of cones? The overview map below gives us a hint.
The white dot on the overview map to the right, about 1,000 miles east of the shield volcano Elysium Mons, marks the location of these cones. At 26 degrees north latitude, this is dry volcano country on Mars, where much of the plains surrounding Elysium are smooth flood lava. It appears that is what this terrain is as well, though what caused that flood lava to create these cones remains a mystery. Could they be an expression of topography covered by lava? If so, that doesn’t explain their alignment. Maybe the cones reveal underground fissures where lava could bubble up from below, but this also fails to explain their alignment.
As I have said numerous times before, Mars is wonderful, Mars is strange, but above all, Mars is alien.
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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