The weird tilted layers on the floor of Danielson Crater on Mars
Click for original image.
Today’s cool image to the right returns us to a previous cool image from 2022. Then I called this strange terrain visible on the floor of the 41-mile-wide Danielson Crater “freaky badlands,” because of the innumerable layers that are all tilted and appear eroded in the same way by prevailing winds coming from the northeast.
Today’s image shows more of the same. The picture to the right, cropped to post here, was taken on March 26, 2026 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It not only shows these layers, in the full image (which I strongly suggest you look at), it also shows several terraced mesas with the same tilt, each looking almost like wedding cakes that have slumped sideways. The aquamarine colors in the hollows suggest finer-grained dust, while the orange colors on higher terrain suggest coarser materials and bedrock.
As I noted in 2022:
At present scientists have no real understanding of what caused these layers. They could have been put down either by the Martian atmospheric climate cycles, where the widely changing tilt of the planet caused many swings over many eons. Or this crater floor might have once been under water, either filled like a lake or at the bottom of a larger sea. No one knows, though scientists have found evidence suggesting an inland sea might have once existed to the west in the outlet from Valles Marineris.
That inland sea is indicated on the overview map to the right. The white rectangle marks the area covered by the inset, with the white dot marking the area covered by the picture above.
This crater is located about 377 miles to the north of where the rover Opportunity landed. It is also in the same region where there are other craters with similar wild layering on their floors, with the craters Crommelin and Firsoff the most notable.
I posted previously the 3d fly-over animation of the floor of Danielson below, using MRO photos. It is worth looking at again. This is very strange geology that challenges every theory proposed so far by geologists.
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.
Today’s cool image to the right returns us to a previous cool image from 2022. Then I called this strange terrain visible on the floor of the 41-mile-wide Danielson Crater “freaky badlands,” because of the innumerable layers that are all tilted and appear eroded in the same way by prevailing winds coming from the northeast.
Today’s image shows more of the same. The picture to the right, cropped to post here, was taken on March 26, 2026 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It not only shows these layers, in the full image (which I strongly suggest you look at), it also shows several terraced mesas with the same tilt, each looking almost like wedding cakes that have slumped sideways. The aquamarine colors in the hollows suggest finer-grained dust, while the orange colors on higher terrain suggest coarser materials and bedrock.
As I noted in 2022:
At present scientists have no real understanding of what caused these layers. They could have been put down either by the Martian atmospheric climate cycles, where the widely changing tilt of the planet caused many swings over many eons. Or this crater floor might have once been under water, either filled like a lake or at the bottom of a larger sea. No one knows, though scientists have found evidence suggesting an inland sea might have once existed to the west in the outlet from Valles Marineris.
That inland sea is indicated on the overview map to the right. The white rectangle marks the area covered by the inset, with the white dot marking the area covered by the picture above.
This crater is located about 377 miles to the north of where the rover Opportunity landed. It is also in the same region where there are other craters with similar wild layering on their floors, with the craters Crommelin and Firsoff the most notable.
I posted previously the 3d fly-over animation of the floor of Danielson below, using MRO photos. It is worth looking at again. This is very strange geology that challenges every theory proposed so far by geologists.
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