“What the heck?” lava on Mars
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on August 19, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Labeled merely as a “terrain sample,” it was likely snapped not for any specific research project, but to fill a gap in the camera schedule in order to maintain its proper temperature.
When the science team does this they try to pick interesting locations. Sometimes the picture is relatively boring. Sometimes, like the picture to the right, it reveals weird geology that is somewhat difficult to explain. The picture covers the transition from the smooth featureless plain to the north, and the twisting and complex ridges to the south, all of which are less than a few feet high.
Note the gaps. The downgrade here is to the west, and the gaps appear to vaguely indicate places where flows had occurred.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, on the southwestern flood lava slopes of the giant volcano Arsia Mons. In the inset, the arrows indicate three separate frozen floods, all flowing to the west or southwest. Though difficult to spot, this image seems to mark the edge of another smaller flow, less pronounced.
The volcano’s caldera is about 600 miles away, so these flows likely erupted from vents on the slopes, not from the caldera itself.
It does appear therefore that this “What the heck?” geology is formed from flood lava, but that really doesn’t explain the complex ridgework. Though some of these ridges hint at circular features, to consider them distorted impact craters seems very wrong, especially because the patterns are so random and confused.
I am not going to attempt any guesses this time. This geology is too puzzling for me. I leave it my readers to speculate.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
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.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on August 19, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Labeled merely as a “terrain sample,” it was likely snapped not for any specific research project, but to fill a gap in the camera schedule in order to maintain its proper temperature.
When the science team does this they try to pick interesting locations. Sometimes the picture is relatively boring. Sometimes, like the picture to the right, it reveals weird geology that is somewhat difficult to explain. The picture covers the transition from the smooth featureless plain to the north, and the twisting and complex ridges to the south, all of which are less than a few feet high.
Note the gaps. The downgrade here is to the west, and the gaps appear to vaguely indicate places where flows had occurred.
The white dot on the overview map to the right marks the location, on the southwestern flood lava slopes of the giant volcano Arsia Mons. In the inset, the arrows indicate three separate frozen floods, all flowing to the west or southwest. Though difficult to spot, this image seems to mark the edge of another smaller flow, less pronounced.
The volcano’s caldera is about 600 miles away, so these flows likely erupted from vents on the slopes, not from the caldera itself.
It does appear therefore that this “What the heck?” geology is formed from flood lava, but that really doesn’t explain the complex ridgework. Though some of these ridges hint at circular features, to consider them distorted impact craters seems very wrong, especially because the patterns are so random and confused.
I am not going to attempt any guesses this time. This geology is too puzzling for me. I leave it my readers to speculate.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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
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