Sunday, December 18, 2005
Martian Strip Mining
The terraced area in this Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image is an outcropping of ancient, sedimentary rock. It occurs in a crater in western Arabia Terra near 10.8°N, 4.5°W. Sedimentary rocks provide a record of past environments on Mars. Field work will likely be required to begin to get a good understanding of the nature of the record these rocks contain. Their generally uniform thickness and repeated character suggests that deposition of fine sediment in this crater was episodic, if not cyclic. These rocks might be indicators of an ancient lake, or they might have been deposited from grains settling out of an earlier, thicker, martian atmosphere. This image covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) across and is illuminated from the lower left. (h/t Malin Space Science Systems).
Looks like a strip mine to me.
There are areas on Mars which make the rock formations around Moab, Utah look tame yet we keep sending missions to the Nebraska of Mars because it's safe. Yea, safe and uninspiring. Whatever happened to going boldly where no one has gone before?
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 8:19 AM 
