The northern interior rim of the largest volcano in the solar system
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on July 8, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows the northernmost interior rim of the caldera of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system.
This one picture provides another way to illustrate the monumental scale of much of Mars’ topography. From the top to the bottom this steep scarp descends about 5,900 feet, in a little more than two miles. Compare that to the trails that descend the Grand Canyon’s south rim, which drop about the same distance but do it in distances ranging from three to five times longer.
In other words, this cliff wall is steep. Finding a route for a trail either up or down would be difficult at best.
The red dot on the overview map to the right marks this location. Note that the crater in this northern edge of Olympus Mons’ caldera has its own name, Athena Patera, with patera indicating that scientists believe it was created by volcanic processes, not an impact.
The picture also shows evidence of an ancient landslide, marked by the raised debris on the left side of the cliff’s base. The material suggests a very large section from the cliff’s bottom third separated and slide down as a unit. The soft nature of the ground here also suggests that this slide occurred a long time ago, and has since been eroded and covered by Martian dust.
The location, at 18 degrees north latitude, suggests there is little near surface ice here, a suggestion strengtened by the elevation, about 64,000 feet above the “sea level” of Mars. At that altitude — twelve miles high and more than twice the height of Mount Everest — the Martian atmosphere is very very thin, making the persistent presence of water, even as a vapor, very difficult.
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 picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on July 8, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows the northernmost interior rim of the caldera of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system.
This one picture provides another way to illustrate the monumental scale of much of Mars’ topography. From the top to the bottom this steep scarp descends about 5,900 feet, in a little more than two miles. Compare that to the trails that descend the Grand Canyon’s south rim, which drop about the same distance but do it in distances ranging from three to five times longer.
In other words, this cliff wall is steep. Finding a route for a trail either up or down would be difficult at best.
The red dot on the overview map to the right marks this location. Note that the crater in this northern edge of Olympus Mons’ caldera has its own name, Athena Patera, with patera indicating that scientists believe it was created by volcanic processes, not an impact.
The picture also shows evidence of an ancient landslide, marked by the raised debris on the left side of the cliff’s base. The material suggests a very large section from the cliff’s bottom third separated and slide down as a unit. The soft nature of the ground here also suggests that this slide occurred a long time ago, and has since been eroded and covered by Martian dust.
The location, at 18 degrees north latitude, suggests there is little near surface ice here, a suggestion strengtened by the elevation, about 64,000 feet above the “sea level” of Mars. At that altitude — twelve miles high and more than twice the height of Mount Everest — the Martian atmosphere is very very thin, making the persistent presence of water, even as a vapor, very difficult.
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
5,900 feet.
A little over one mile 5,280 ft.
Jeff Wright: In mileage I was referring the horizontal distance.
I am continually taken aback by just how old features on Mars are. I fancy myself a bit of a geological hobbyist, and live in a part of the US that affords much to study, but Earthly processes seem to take place fast-forward compared to Mars and its slow-even-by-geological-standards transformations.