Unknown Mars
Click for interactive global mosaic.
Cool image time! The picture to the right was created from a global mosaic of all the context camera images taken by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) since it entered Mars orbit in 2006. It shows an unnamed 17-mile-wide-depression located only about seven miles south of the southern rim of Valles Marineris.
I highlight this particular depression because, despite seventeen years in orbit, MRO’s high resolution camera has at this time still not taken any pictures inside or around it. This is a place on Mars that remains unstudied in detail, in any way, even though its depth is comparable to the Grand Canyon and its features strongly suggest its is a collapse feature, created when the roof over an underground void gave way. If so, it suggests an origin for Valles Marineris that conflicts with present theories.
The depression in the middle of the inset on the overview map to the right is this unnamed depression. Some numbers: The drop from rim to floor ranges from 4,000 to 6,000 feet. The small hills inside the depression range in height from only about 30 feet to as much as 3,700 feet. All remind me of cave breakdown piles that have become partly buried by debris as well as eroded over time from wind.
Breakdown piles in caves come from ceiling collapses. If this is a collapse feature it suggests that much of Valles Marineris was formed in a similar way. The present most accepted theory — not confirmed — is that catastrophic floods of water carved the giant canyon. If formed underground, however, that suggests that the process was likely not catastrophic. Instead, the material was slowly washed out until the roof fell in, leaving behind that gigantic canyon.
All of this speculation is the equivalent of blindly throwing darts at a wall, and hoping something hits bullseye. For example, was glacial activity involved? What was this region like on Mars in the far past, when it is thought there was more water on the planet? How does the wide swings in the planet’s rotational tilt and the accompanying climate cycles factor in? How did the many volcanic eruptions that laid down numerous layers in Valles Marineris impact this formation process?
The bottom line remains: No detailed study of this unnamed depression has yet occurred, because Mars is a planet with as much surface area as all the continents on Earth. There is a lot to study here, and we have only been doing it for less than a half century, and almost all only from orbit.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Click for interactive global mosaic.
Cool image time! The picture to the right was created from a global mosaic of all the context camera images taken by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) since it entered Mars orbit in 2006. It shows an unnamed 17-mile-wide-depression located only about seven miles south of the southern rim of Valles Marineris.
I highlight this particular depression because, despite seventeen years in orbit, MRO’s high resolution camera has at this time still not taken any pictures inside or around it. This is a place on Mars that remains unstudied in detail, in any way, even though its depth is comparable to the Grand Canyon and its features strongly suggest its is a collapse feature, created when the roof over an underground void gave way. If so, it suggests an origin for Valles Marineris that conflicts with present theories.
The depression in the middle of the inset on the overview map to the right is this unnamed depression. Some numbers: The drop from rim to floor ranges from 4,000 to 6,000 feet. The small hills inside the depression range in height from only about 30 feet to as much as 3,700 feet. All remind me of cave breakdown piles that have become partly buried by debris as well as eroded over time from wind.
Breakdown piles in caves come from ceiling collapses. If this is a collapse feature it suggests that much of Valles Marineris was formed in a similar way. The present most accepted theory — not confirmed — is that catastrophic floods of water carved the giant canyon. If formed underground, however, that suggests that the process was likely not catastrophic. Instead, the material was slowly washed out until the roof fell in, leaving behind that gigantic canyon.
All of this speculation is the equivalent of blindly throwing darts at a wall, and hoping something hits bullseye. For example, was glacial activity involved? What was this region like on Mars in the far past, when it is thought there was more water on the planet? How does the wide swings in the planet’s rotational tilt and the accompanying climate cycles factor in? How did the many volcanic eruptions that laid down numerous layers in Valles Marineris impact this formation process?
The bottom line remains: No detailed study of this unnamed depression has yet occurred, because Mars is a planet with as much surface area as all the continents on Earth. There is a lot to study here, and we have only been doing it for less than a half century, and almost all only from orbit.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
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