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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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