Swirling layers in the basement of Mars
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on March 31, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
In labeling this picture the science team focused on the many layers visible in these swirls, all suggesting a series of cyclical events, each laying down a new layer over many eons.
What caused the swirls? Looking at the lower right quadrant it appears that they were glacial, with the flow to the northwest but with each glacial layer smaller and not reaching as far.
This theory falls apart however at the curved depression, which instead suggests the swirl was traveling along a meandering canyon, going from the lower left to the upper right. If so, the curved depression is even more baffling. If ice it could have sublimated away, but its sharp edges suggest this isn’t ice but maybe a lava flow.
On the overview map to the right the white dot in Hellas Basin, what I sometimes refer to as the basement of Mars, marks the location. At this latitude, 36 degrees south, orbital data has reveals a lot of glacial features to the east, outside Hellas. Similarly, to the west of Hellas the floors of many craters suggest the existence of a deeper layer of ice.
Inside Hellas the evidence is more puzzling. The light blue area dubbed taffy terrain is very similar to the swirl in this picture, with many layers and a curved nature that to scientists suggests the motion of a thick syrupy material whose make-up remains a mystery. It could be glacial ice, but maybe not. It could also be lava, though thicker and flowing more slowly than normally seen on Mars.
This particular swirl however is not in that taffy terrain region, which either suggests that region is larger than first thought, or this swirl is something different.
Just another geological mystery on Mars, requiring boots on the ground to solve.
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.
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4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on March 31, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
In labeling this picture the science team focused on the many layers visible in these swirls, all suggesting a series of cyclical events, each laying down a new layer over many eons.
What caused the swirls? Looking at the lower right quadrant it appears that they were glacial, with the flow to the northwest but with each glacial layer smaller and not reaching as far.
This theory falls apart however at the curved depression, which instead suggests the swirl was traveling along a meandering canyon, going from the lower left to the upper right. If so, the curved depression is even more baffling. If ice it could have sublimated away, but its sharp edges suggest this isn’t ice but maybe a lava flow.
On the overview map to the right the white dot in Hellas Basin, what I sometimes refer to as the basement of Mars, marks the location. At this latitude, 36 degrees south, orbital data has reveals a lot of glacial features to the east, outside Hellas. Similarly, to the west of Hellas the floors of many craters suggest the existence of a deeper layer of ice.
Inside Hellas the evidence is more puzzling. The light blue area dubbed taffy terrain is very similar to the swirl in this picture, with many layers and a curved nature that to scientists suggests the motion of a thick syrupy material whose make-up remains a mystery. It could be glacial ice, but maybe not. It could also be lava, though thicker and flowing more slowly than normally seen on Mars.
This particular swirl however is not in that taffy terrain region, which either suggests that region is larger than first thought, or this swirl is something different.
Just another geological mystery on Mars, requiring boots on the ground to solve.
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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