The crack that splits the giant volcanoes on Mars
Click for full image.
Cool image time! In the April download of new images from the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) was the photo to the right, taken on February 23, 2021 and cropped and reduced to post here, of what was labeled as “Source Region of Possible Rille on South Flank of Arsia Mons.”
Arsia Mons is the southernmost of the string of three giant volcanoes that sit between Mars’ biggest volcano to the west, Olympus Mons, and Mars’ biggest canyon to the east, Valles Marineris. This depression is on the mountain’s lower southern flank, and likely shows an ancient resurgence point where lava once flowed out from beneath the ground to form a rill meandering to the southwest. Today there is no visible resurgence. The floor of the depression appears to be filled with sand and dust, with the surrounding slopes spotted with scattered boulders.
What makes this particular image more interesting is how, when we take a very wide view, it reveals one of the most dramatic geological features on Mars, the 3,500 mile-long crack that caused these three volcanoes, and is actually not obvious unless you know what to look for.
So we need to zoom out. Let us first begin with a mosaic of three wider MRO context camera images, showing the entire rille and the immediately surrounding terrain.
Click here, here, and here to see original images.
The slope goes downhill to the south. Note how the rille appears at several points to break into a series of pits. This suggests that there is actually an underground lava tube below the rille, which is revealed by the sinking of the surface ground above it.
Note also how the rille appears to fade away. This suggests that either the flow that created it had ended, or had begun to spread out, propagating more evenly so that no specific channel or tube was created.
The lack of other similar features in the surrounding terrain is important. While there are a handful of other depressions, they do not show the same kind of obvious trend or pattern. The line of depressions to the east of the rille might indicate an underground tube, but if so it is not as obvious. The uniqueness of the rille suggests that it formed because there was some distinct underground geological feature, such as a fault, at that spot. When two sections of ground either spread apart or shift sideways to each other, creating a crack, the contact point is called a fault, and often becomes the place where flows of lava or water congregate, creating rilles, channels, fissures, etc.
The southeast to southwest trend of the rille is also suggestive. It might be indicating that the underground fault that might have helped form this rille could also be part of a much, much, much larger fault feature, the 3,500-mile-long crack that cuts across all three giant volcanoes and beyond and was actually the reason they all formed in a line. The overview map to the right shows this, with this rill marked by the white dot. The line running from the region of cracks dubbed Tempe Terra to this rill marks the line of the fault. In fact, if you zoom into the caldera of Arsia Mons you can see obvious evidence of this fault in its northeast and southwest rims.
The volcanic processes that more than a billion years ago shaped this part of Mars was caused by deep and larger underground forces that also cracked the planet. The evidence of those epic planetary events is still visible, on scales ranging from mere feet to thousands of miles.
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.
Click for full image.
Cool image time! In the April download of new images from the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) was the photo to the right, taken on February 23, 2021 and cropped and reduced to post here, of what was labeled as “Source Region of Possible Rille on South Flank of Arsia Mons.”
Arsia Mons is the southernmost of the string of three giant volcanoes that sit between Mars’ biggest volcano to the west, Olympus Mons, and Mars’ biggest canyon to the east, Valles Marineris. This depression is on the mountain’s lower southern flank, and likely shows an ancient resurgence point where lava once flowed out from beneath the ground to form a rill meandering to the southwest. Today there is no visible resurgence. The floor of the depression appears to be filled with sand and dust, with the surrounding slopes spotted with scattered boulders.
What makes this particular image more interesting is how, when we take a very wide view, it reveals one of the most dramatic geological features on Mars, the 3,500 mile-long crack that caused these three volcanoes, and is actually not obvious unless you know what to look for.
So we need to zoom out. Let us first begin with a mosaic of three wider MRO context camera images, showing the entire rille and the immediately surrounding terrain.
Click here, here, and here to see original images.
The slope goes downhill to the south. Note how the rille appears at several points to break into a series of pits. This suggests that there is actually an underground lava tube below the rille, which is revealed by the sinking of the surface ground above it.
Note also how the rille appears to fade away. This suggests that either the flow that created it had ended, or had begun to spread out, propagating more evenly so that no specific channel or tube was created.
The lack of other similar features in the surrounding terrain is important. While there are a handful of other depressions, they do not show the same kind of obvious trend or pattern. The line of depressions to the east of the rille might indicate an underground tube, but if so it is not as obvious. The uniqueness of the rille suggests that it formed because there was some distinct underground geological feature, such as a fault, at that spot. When two sections of ground either spread apart or shift sideways to each other, creating a crack, the contact point is called a fault, and often becomes the place where flows of lava or water congregate, creating rilles, channels, fissures, etc.
The southeast to southwest trend of the rille is also suggestive. It might be indicating that the underground fault that might have helped form this rille could also be part of a much, much, much larger fault feature, the 3,500-mile-long crack that cuts across all three giant volcanoes and beyond and was actually the reason they all formed in a line. The overview map to the right shows this, with this rill marked by the white dot. The line running from the region of cracks dubbed Tempe Terra to this rill marks the line of the fault. In fact, if you zoom into the caldera of Arsia Mons you can see obvious evidence of this fault in its northeast and southwest rims.
The volcanic processes that more than a billion years ago shaped this part of Mars was caused by deep and larger underground forces that also cracked the planet. The evidence of those epic planetary events is still visible, on scales ranging from mere feet to thousands of miles.
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.
Perhaps a Hellas impactor loaded the terrain with energy…displaced here?
Jeff Wright: Yes, I’ve seen this posited also. What we need to find out however is firm dating, which we won’t get until we are on the planet, as humans, in relatively large numbers.
Miranda’s chevron and race-track looking like strip-mines is what has me flummoxed
As presented, the features, to me, appear to be humps.
However, upside down, they are indeed depressions.
At least I do not see canals!