The shoreline of a Martian lava sea
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on October 2, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The science team labeled this a “lava margin.” The darker material on the right is apparently a newer deposit of lava, flowing on top of the lighter lava on the left. The newer deposit is only about three feet thick, so it had to have flowed fast almost like water to cover this large area with such a thin layer before freezing. Even so, this new lava layer has a roughness greater than the older layer below it. Either the older layer is smoother because of erosion from wind over eons, or the lava in these two layers was comprised of slightly different materials that froze with different textures.
The small ridges appear to be wrinkle ridges, created when material shrinks as it freezes.
This margin marks the edge of a very large flood lava event, as illustrated by the overview map below.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, within the region where the seismometer on the lander InSight detected the largest quakes on Mars. This region is also in an area of little volcanic dust, lying outside the Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest volcanic ash deposit on Mars.
The white box in the inset indicates the area covered by the photo above. This inset was produced from a global mosaic created from MRO’s wide-view context camera, and in wider views this sea of lava extends several hundred miles to the north and west, and could very well be the most extreme flow from the Athabasca flood lava event, beleved to be the most recent major volcanic eruption on Mars.
The ground rises to the south and west of this margin, suggesting that in many ways this is a shoreline, with the sea of lava filling the lower elevation before freezing. Both it and the lava layer below illustrate the extensive volcanic history of Mars, that several billion years ago dominated the geology of the red planet. In later eons water ice and wind might have played a part in shaping this landscape, but in the beginning the volcanism that produced Mars’ giant volcanoes and its extensive flood lava plains were what shaped this landscape, as we see it now.
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:
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Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on October 2, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The science team labeled this a “lava margin.” The darker material on the right is apparently a newer deposit of lava, flowing on top of the lighter lava on the left. The newer deposit is only about three feet thick, so it had to have flowed fast almost like water to cover this large area with such a thin layer before freezing. Even so, this new lava layer has a roughness greater than the older layer below it. Either the older layer is smoother because of erosion from wind over eons, or the lava in these two layers was comprised of slightly different materials that froze with different textures.
The small ridges appear to be wrinkle ridges, created when material shrinks as it freezes.
This margin marks the edge of a very large flood lava event, as illustrated by the overview map below.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, within the region where the seismometer on the lander InSight detected the largest quakes on Mars. This region is also in an area of little volcanic dust, lying outside the Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest volcanic ash deposit on Mars.
The white box in the inset indicates the area covered by the photo above. This inset was produced from a global mosaic created from MRO’s wide-view context camera, and in wider views this sea of lava extends several hundred miles to the north and west, and could very well be the most extreme flow from the Athabasca flood lava event, beleved to be the most recent major volcanic eruption on Mars.
The ground rises to the south and west of this margin, suggesting that in many ways this is a shoreline, with the sea of lava filling the lower elevation before freezing. Both it and the lava layer below illustrate the extensive volcanic history of Mars, that several billion years ago dominated the geology of the red planet. In later eons water ice and wind might have played a part in shaping this landscape, but in the beginning the volcanism that produced Mars’ giant volcanoes and its extensive flood lava plains were what shaped this landscape, as we see it now.
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.
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