The very end of an 800-mile-long Martian canyon
Click for full image.
Cool image time! While most geeks interested in Mars are familiar with Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in the solar system, Mars has other large canyons that while not a big are impressive in their own right. The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, shows us the very very end of one such canyon. Taken on April 19, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), it shows the easternmost spot where Cerberus Fossae begins. From here, this narrow fracture-caused canyon extends another 800 miles to the west, sometimes splitting into two or three parallel cracks, but always oriented in the same direction, slightly north of due west.
The overview map below provides the context and wider view.
The white dot at the very eastern end of Cerberus Fossae marks the location of today’s image. The parallel red lines to the west mark the extend of the canyon itself. Notice how one of the earthquakes detected by InSight’s seismometer occurred almost at the canyon’s midpoint.
Cerberus was not formed from water or lava flow. Instead, it formed when the ground cracked, from either upward or spreading pressure pulling the sections apart. Geologists call the features produced by this process grabens, and Cerberus is a doozy, one of the longest known.
It is also relatively young. The lava that flooded the plains it cuts across flowed first, then hardened. This frozen lava then later cracked, producing the canyon.
And yet, newer volcano events did follow, though nothing in at least the last 50,000 years. Those young volcanic events along Cerberus’ length resemble the dark streak just to the north of the canyon’s very end (see the cool image here for an example). The streaks in today’s image however could just as easily be the result of blowing dust from the prevailing winds.
This picture nicely illustrates the abrupt steepness of Cerberus Fossae. As the canyon widens and deepens, its walls remain consistently vertical. Easy access to its bottom is rarely available. This end point provides a more accessible entrance point, but even here the drop is steep and suddenly.
The color difference also highlights this. The orange suggests dust on the surrounding plateau. The blue suggests water ice at the canyon’s base, suggesting a very different climate. At only 6 degrees north latitude ice here would be a somewhat significant find, as no surface ice has so far been detected at latitudes this low.
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
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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.
Click for full image.
Cool image time! While most geeks interested in Mars are familiar with Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in the solar system, Mars has other large canyons that while not a big are impressive in their own right. The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, shows us the very very end of one such canyon. Taken on April 19, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), it shows the easternmost spot where Cerberus Fossae begins. From here, this narrow fracture-caused canyon extends another 800 miles to the west, sometimes splitting into two or three parallel cracks, but always oriented in the same direction, slightly north of due west.
The overview map below provides the context and wider view.
The white dot at the very eastern end of Cerberus Fossae marks the location of today’s image. The parallel red lines to the west mark the extend of the canyon itself. Notice how one of the earthquakes detected by InSight’s seismometer occurred almost at the canyon’s midpoint.
Cerberus was not formed from water or lava flow. Instead, it formed when the ground cracked, from either upward or spreading pressure pulling the sections apart. Geologists call the features produced by this process grabens, and Cerberus is a doozy, one of the longest known.
It is also relatively young. The lava that flooded the plains it cuts across flowed first, then hardened. This frozen lava then later cracked, producing the canyon.
And yet, newer volcano events did follow, though nothing in at least the last 50,000 years. Those young volcanic events along Cerberus’ length resemble the dark streak just to the north of the canyon’s very end (see the cool image here for an example). The streaks in today’s image however could just as easily be the result of blowing dust from the prevailing winds.
This picture nicely illustrates the abrupt steepness of Cerberus Fossae. As the canyon widens and deepens, its walls remain consistently vertical. Easy access to its bottom is rarely available. This end point provides a more accessible entrance point, but even here the drop is steep and suddenly.
The color difference also highlights this. The orange suggests dust on the surrounding plateau. The blue suggests water ice at the canyon’s base, suggesting a very different climate. At only 6 degrees north latitude ice here would be a somewhat significant find, as no surface ice has so far been detected at latitudes this low.
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.
Looks like a crack in the drywall. A few quadrillion gallons of mud will take care of that.
Looking closer at those images, it looks like a worm trail out of Herbert’s Dune.
Why hasn’t something so narrow not filled up with dust yet>
We’ve seen this before: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/flinstones/images/b/be/Grand_Canyon.png/revision/latest?cb=20211127093924