When Martian lava meets a Martian mountain
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on April 24, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and was posted yesterday by the science team to illustrate the vast lava flows that cover much of Mars. From the caption:
This image captures the edge of a lava flow that partially buries older terrain in the Martian Southern Highlands. Where the edge of the lava flow made contact with the higher-standing topography, it formed a rumpled and ridged surface.
This lava flow is one of many massive flows that extend southwest from Arsia Mons, one of the largest shield volcanoes on Mars.
The mountain to the south rises about 3,700 feet above that rumpled lava ocean at its base.
The white dot at 30 degrees south latitude on the overview map to the right marks the location. The inset shows most of that mountain, surrounded by that lava ocean, with the white arrow indicating the downhill grade. It is believed that Martian lava flows faster and with less viscosity than lava on Earth, due mostly to the red planet’s lower gravity. As this lava flowed downhill from Arsie Mons it impacted this higher mountain, and was forced to go around, with some of the lava piling up on the mountain’s flanks to form this rough rippled terrain.
As this location is at 30 degrees south latitude, it is possible there could be some ice here just below the surface, though a close look at the mountain shows no obvious evidence of glaciers. If there is any ice, it is either deeper underground or found further to the south, farther into the mid-latitudes.
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.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on April 24, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and was posted yesterday by the science team to illustrate the vast lava flows that cover much of Mars. From the caption:
This image captures the edge of a lava flow that partially buries older terrain in the Martian Southern Highlands. Where the edge of the lava flow made contact with the higher-standing topography, it formed a rumpled and ridged surface.
This lava flow is one of many massive flows that extend southwest from Arsia Mons, one of the largest shield volcanoes on Mars.
The mountain to the south rises about 3,700 feet above that rumpled lava ocean at its base.
The white dot at 30 degrees south latitude on the overview map to the right marks the location. The inset shows most of that mountain, surrounded by that lava ocean, with the white arrow indicating the downhill grade. It is believed that Martian lava flows faster and with less viscosity than lava on Earth, due mostly to the red planet’s lower gravity. As this lava flowed downhill from Arsie Mons it impacted this higher mountain, and was forced to go around, with some of the lava piling up on the mountain’s flanks to form this rough rippled terrain.
As this location is at 30 degrees south latitude, it is possible there could be some ice here just below the surface, though a close look at the mountain shows no obvious evidence of glaciers. If there is any ice, it is either deeper underground or found further to the south, farther into the mid-latitudes.
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