Weird surface cracking in the Martian northern lowland plains
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on January 15, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The picture was simply labeled “Channel-like feature”, which hardly describes this strange terrain.
Apparently a mantle of surface material has covered and filled an ancient east-west channel. That surface material however has since cracked along the edges of that channel as well along its length. The cracks suggest that the material in the channel is moving downhill slowly, cracking along the cliff walls while also being pulled apart to form the north-south cracks.
My regular readers will I think be able to guess what is going on here, but if you can’t, the overview map below will help explain this.
The white dot in Utopia Planitia indicates the location of this picture. It also suggests that the downhill grade is to the east, into Utopia.
The latitude, 45 degrees north, places this feature far enough north for there to be ample near surface ice, which also suggests that the surface mantle that is cracking likely has a lot of ice within it, and that the cracks indicate the presence of a buried glacier inside this channel.
This hypothesis however is hardly certain, since in looking at a lot of images of the northern lowland plains from MRO I have never seen anything quite like this. The north-south cracks are not uncommon, but I do not remember ever seeing previously anything similar to the east-west cracks delineating what appears to be a buried channel.
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Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on January 15, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The picture was simply labeled “Channel-like feature”, which hardly describes this strange terrain.
Apparently a mantle of surface material has covered and filled an ancient east-west channel. That surface material however has since cracked along the edges of that channel as well along its length. The cracks suggest that the material in the channel is moving downhill slowly, cracking along the cliff walls while also being pulled apart to form the north-south cracks.
My regular readers will I think be able to guess what is going on here, but if you can’t, the overview map below will help explain this.
The white dot in Utopia Planitia indicates the location of this picture. It also suggests that the downhill grade is to the east, into Utopia.
The latitude, 45 degrees north, places this feature far enough north for there to be ample near surface ice, which also suggests that the surface mantle that is cracking likely has a lot of ice within it, and that the cracks indicate the presence of a buried glacier inside this channel.
This hypothesis however is hardly certain, since in looking at a lot of images of the northern lowland plains from MRO I have never seen anything quite like this. The north-south cracks are not uncommon, but I do not remember ever seeing previously anything similar to the east-west cracks delineating what appears to be a buried channel.
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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