The divide in a giant Martian lava river
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, sharpened, and annotated to post here, was taken on September 24, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
As indicated by the arrows, this is a frozen river of lava on Mars, flowing to the southwest and then splitting into two streams, one to the west and the other to the south. Being a Martian lava flow, when it was liquid it flowed much faster than lava on Earth, almost like a thick water. The flow bored into any high features, such as the two mesas in this picture, and streamlined their shapes, tearing material away as the lava moved by quickly. In the process the lava flow exposed many layers in those mesas, indicating many other previous lava flow events.
The crater in the lower mesa, where the stream splits, appears to have been more resistent to the flow, having been compacted into harder and denser material by the impact itself.
The white dot in the overview map to the right marks the location, with the rectangle in the inset indicating the area covered by the picture above. The inset also shows a wider view of the two diverging lava streams.
This particular Martian volcanic event is part of the Athabasca flood event, believed to be the youngest major volcanic event on Mars, taking place only about 600 million years ago and covering an area about the size of Great Britain in only a matter of weeks. This particular spot, where the flow split, is very near the vent that released the entire eruption, only about 90 miles away to the northeast. Thus, the lava river here was very large and distinct, with frozen features suggesting it was moving very fast and deep.
From this spot however this river of lava divided, with about two thirds flowing to the west to coat a vast region, while the remain one third headed south. The blue shaded areas on the overview map show roughly the territory both flows inundated.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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 photo to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, sharpened, and annotated to post here, was taken on September 24, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
As indicated by the arrows, this is a frozen river of lava on Mars, flowing to the southwest and then splitting into two streams, one to the west and the other to the south. Being a Martian lava flow, when it was liquid it flowed much faster than lava on Earth, almost like a thick water. The flow bored into any high features, such as the two mesas in this picture, and streamlined their shapes, tearing material away as the lava moved by quickly. In the process the lava flow exposed many layers in those mesas, indicating many other previous lava flow events.
The crater in the lower mesa, where the stream splits, appears to have been more resistent to the flow, having been compacted into harder and denser material by the impact itself.
The white dot in the overview map to the right marks the location, with the rectangle in the inset indicating the area covered by the picture above. The inset also shows a wider view of the two diverging lava streams.
This particular Martian volcanic event is part of the Athabasca flood event, believed to be the youngest major volcanic event on Mars, taking place only about 600 million years ago and covering an area about the size of Great Britain in only a matter of weeks. This particular spot, where the flow split, is very near the vent that released the entire eruption, only about 90 miles away to the northeast. Thus, the lava river here was very large and distinct, with frozen features suggesting it was moving very fast and deep.
From this spot however this river of lava divided, with about two thirds flowing to the west to coat a vast region, while the remain one third headed south. The blue shaded areas on the overview map show roughly the territory both flows inundated.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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