The fractured floor of the south Utopia Basin
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on August 5, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The central darker strip however comes from a September 27, 2008 image by MRO’s lower resolution context camera, inserted to fill in the blank section where one component on the high resolution camera has failed.
The picture focuses on what the scientists call a “pit interacting with a mound.” The 100-foot-deep pit is one of a very long meandering string of such pits, all of which suggest the existence of an buried river canyon into which debris is sinking. Altogether this particular string runs from several dozen miles, and its interaction with the triangular 300-foot-high mound suggests at first glance that the river that created the canyon did a turn to the left to avoid a large underground mountain, now mostly buried but revealed by its still exposed peak.
As is usual in planetary research, the first glance is often wrong. The overview map below provides a different answer, which says the formation of the aligned pits is related to the formation of the mound itself.
The white dot on overview map to the right marks this location, in a region called Hephaestus Fossae where there are many such fissures and aligned sinkholes. Though the surface topography at this location does not have any distinct downgrade, the general grade along full length of Hephaestus is a gentle downhill to the northwest, dropping only 10,000 feet in 300 miles.
The angular shape of the fissures and aligned sinkholes suggest instead that we are looking at cracks and faults, not a meandering filled canyon formed by water. In fact, the terrain resembles the cracked polygons seen in dried lakebeds, except that the scale is much larger. The mound could thus be nothing more than material thrust upward when the crack separated.
Overall the fissures in Hephaestus suggest a drainage down into Utopia basin that followed these cracks. As this location is in the dry equatorial regions of Mars, there is now no near surface ice, though scientists are studying the cracks and pits in Hephaestus in the hope they might find evidence of deep underground ice still surviving there. If so, this region would become valuable real estate for future colonists.
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
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on August 5, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The central darker strip however comes from a September 27, 2008 image by MRO’s lower resolution context camera, inserted to fill in the blank section where one component on the high resolution camera has failed.
The picture focuses on what the scientists call a “pit interacting with a mound.” The 100-foot-deep pit is one of a very long meandering string of such pits, all of which suggest the existence of an buried river canyon into which debris is sinking. Altogether this particular string runs from several dozen miles, and its interaction with the triangular 300-foot-high mound suggests at first glance that the river that created the canyon did a turn to the left to avoid a large underground mountain, now mostly buried but revealed by its still exposed peak.
As is usual in planetary research, the first glance is often wrong. The overview map below provides a different answer, which says the formation of the aligned pits is related to the formation of the mound itself.
The white dot on overview map to the right marks this location, in a region called Hephaestus Fossae where there are many such fissures and aligned sinkholes. Though the surface topography at this location does not have any distinct downgrade, the general grade along full length of Hephaestus is a gentle downhill to the northwest, dropping only 10,000 feet in 300 miles.
The angular shape of the fissures and aligned sinkholes suggest instead that we are looking at cracks and faults, not a meandering filled canyon formed by water. In fact, the terrain resembles the cracked polygons seen in dried lakebeds, except that the scale is much larger. The mound could thus be nothing more than material thrust upward when the crack separated.
Overall the fissures in Hephaestus suggest a drainage down into Utopia basin that followed these cracks. As this location is in the dry equatorial regions of Mars, there is now no near surface ice, though scientists are studying the cracks and pits in Hephaestus in the hope they might find evidence of deep underground ice still surviving there. If so, this region would become valuable real estate for future colonists.
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
The River Canyon Pits, is where the Martians live.. Deep within the Martian surface. Out of our sight. Sheltered comfortably.
Much like the lava tubes in the California Lassen area, where the locals long ago hid and lived.
Coming out at night to raid the surface pioneers of their bobbles and bangles, and food stuffs also.
Then to head home before sunrise. Happy.
Quoting Bill Maulden:
“Footprints! God, what a monster!”
Blackwing1: Heh. I should have noted that myself. :)
Blackwing1 and Robert Zimmerman:
Learned something. Thanks!
I had vaguely heard of Bill Maulden, but he and his time were before mine. I am in full agreement with a Public
Affairs CO’s assessment that ‘he had it’. The humor and reflection on Army life, and war in general, in his cartoons, is devastating. Our politics likely would not align, but I respect the perception. And, he served.
-totally not aware Bill Mauldin lived until 2003!
“Bill Mauldin: Shaping Views of American Presidents with Cartoons
Pritzker Military Museum (2022)
https://youtu.be/LdpH1muQjwg
37:39
“WTTW’s Geoffrey Baer, offers a fascinating look at 100+ works and documents that cover Bill Mauldin’s life and work for the Chicago Sun Times.”