The edge of Mars’ south polar layered cap
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, rotated and cropped to post here, was taken by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on April 10, 2020, and shows the edge of what scientists have dubbed Mars’s south polar layered deposits. The high point, towards the south, is at the bottom, and the terraced layers descend downward to the plains as you move up the image, to the north.
In essence, this spot is the edge of the southern ice cap, though unlike the north polar ice cap, this edge is not the edge of the visible ice cap, but the edge of a much larger field of layered deposits of mixed dust and ice. In the north the ice cap almost entirely covers these layered deposits. In the south the residual ice cap does not. Instead, the layered deposits extend out far beyond the smaller residual ice cap.
The map below provides the geography of the south pole, with the location of this image indicated by the blue cross.
It is also worthwhile comparing this map to the map of the north pole that I provided in an earlier post. On large scales the differences outlined above are obvious.
That post focused on the edge of the north polar ice cap, so opening it in a second tab and comparing its cool image with today’s cool image is also very worthwhile. On small scales the differences are just as obvious. While the edge in the north is very steep and sudden, in the south the edge is much more gradual. Rather than a cliff, we are presented by a gradual series of terraces, each representing an older layer as you travel downward.
In the north pole cool image there appear to be many more layers, but that is because in the north they are all visible in one cliff edge. In the south the layers are exposed over a much more extensive area, much larger than can be captured in a single MRO photo. Today’s cool image only shows one small section of terraces, with many more to the south, beyond the bottom edge of this image and closer to the pole.
In the north the edge also included the many white layers of the residual cap of relatively pure ice, sitting on top of the layered deposits. In the south, in today’s image, we are quite far away from that residual ice cap, so its white layers are not present.
Essentially, the Martian poles are fundamentally different As I noted on July 8, 2020:
The south cap is thought to be 7 to 15 million years older. While the permanent residual ice cap in the north is large and almost completely covers the layered deposits of ice/dust below it, in the south the permanent ice cap is much smaller and covers only a small portion of those layered deposits.
The south pole sits at a higher elevation, on the rougher cratered southern highlands. The north pole is in the middle of the smoother northern lowland plains, with many fewer craters. While the north pole is surrounded by a vast sea of dunes, the dunes in the south are generally confined to the interiors of craters.
Most importantly, while each visible layer in both the north and south pole images represents a unique past climate cycle on Mars, all probably caused by the swings in the planet’s obliquity (its rotational tilt relative to the Sun), scientists have not yet been able to match up the layers between the two caps. They therefore think that they could represent different timelines, a puzzling circumstance that remains unexplained.
In fact, to understand and align the histories of both caps, which will also help us lay out the entire history of Mars’ past climate cycles, we will simply need to drill cores in both places, in numerous spots.
Such work however is likely not to happen until humans are living on Mars and are walking its surface.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, rotated and cropped to post here, was taken by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on April 10, 2020, and shows the edge of what scientists have dubbed Mars’s south polar layered deposits. The high point, towards the south, is at the bottom, and the terraced layers descend downward to the plains as you move up the image, to the north.
In essence, this spot is the edge of the southern ice cap, though unlike the north polar ice cap, this edge is not the edge of the visible ice cap, but the edge of a much larger field of layered deposits of mixed dust and ice. In the north the ice cap almost entirely covers these layered deposits. In the south the residual ice cap does not. Instead, the layered deposits extend out far beyond the smaller residual ice cap.
The map below provides the geography of the south pole, with the location of this image indicated by the blue cross.
It is also worthwhile comparing this map to the map of the north pole that I provided in an earlier post. On large scales the differences outlined above are obvious.
That post focused on the edge of the north polar ice cap, so opening it in a second tab and comparing its cool image with today’s cool image is also very worthwhile. On small scales the differences are just as obvious. While the edge in the north is very steep and sudden, in the south the edge is much more gradual. Rather than a cliff, we are presented by a gradual series of terraces, each representing an older layer as you travel downward.
In the north pole cool image there appear to be many more layers, but that is because in the north they are all visible in one cliff edge. In the south the layers are exposed over a much more extensive area, much larger than can be captured in a single MRO photo. Today’s cool image only shows one small section of terraces, with many more to the south, beyond the bottom edge of this image and closer to the pole.
In the north the edge also included the many white layers of the residual cap of relatively pure ice, sitting on top of the layered deposits. In the south, in today’s image, we are quite far away from that residual ice cap, so its white layers are not present.
Essentially, the Martian poles are fundamentally different As I noted on July 8, 2020:
The south cap is thought to be 7 to 15 million years older. While the permanent residual ice cap in the north is large and almost completely covers the layered deposits of ice/dust below it, in the south the permanent ice cap is much smaller and covers only a small portion of those layered deposits.
The south pole sits at a higher elevation, on the rougher cratered southern highlands. The north pole is in the middle of the smoother northern lowland plains, with many fewer craters. While the north pole is surrounded by a vast sea of dunes, the dunes in the south are generally confined to the interiors of craters.
Most importantly, while each visible layer in both the north and south pole images represents a unique past climate cycle on Mars, all probably caused by the swings in the planet’s obliquity (its rotational tilt relative to the Sun), scientists have not yet been able to match up the layers between the two caps. They therefore think that they could represent different timelines, a puzzling circumstance that remains unexplained.
In fact, to understand and align the histories of both caps, which will also help us lay out the entire history of Mars’ past climate cycles, we will simply need to drill cores in both places, in numerous spots.
Such work however is likely not to happen until humans are living on Mars and are walking its surface.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
From Mars Flashes of Light the Martians are launching against us