Layers of Red Cliffs on Mars (APOD 06 Oct 2008)

[Pol Jansegers]

I am a bit puzzled with the comment to the today's APOD, when it says that the "Cliff faces [are] mostly facing left..." and that "the elevation drop from right to left is...". Observing the rubble piles along the cliffs - especially the one near top left of the picture, which clearly falls down (towards the right!) over several cliffs -, one would say that the lower side of the cliffs is to the right side of the picture. Or did I miss something? [/i]

[Forelan]

I kind of wish we had a wider shot. I would like to have seen more of the formation. Very interesting.

[emc]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081006.html

This image reminds me of something Dr. Nemiroff said in one of his lectures posted on the web (I think # 8 ). To paraphrase what he said, “Looking at geographic features we don’t understand is kind of like looking at a section of the pile of snow a snow plow makes along the side of the road. Without the knowledge of the cars creating the slush and the snow plow pushing the snow up onto the pile… we would just ponder the layers of piled up snow in puzzlement.” (That isn’t exactly what he said, it’s just the best I can do with my recall. His example makes a lot of sense for me and helps soothe the strain that comes from trying to understand extraterrestrial puzzles. In other words, it's almost acceptable to not understand these Martian cliffs due to the missing information.)

[neufer]

I am a bit puzzled with the comment to the today's APOD, when it says that the "Cliff faces [are] mostly facing left..." and that "the elevation drop from right to left is...". Observing the rubble piles along the cliffs - especially the one near top left of the picture, which clearly falls down (towards the right!) over several cliffs -, one would say that the lower side of the cliffs is to the right side of the picture. Or did I miss something? [/i]

I don't know why you assume that:

"the rubble piles along the cliffs - especially the one near top left of the picture, which clearly falls down (towards the right!) over several cliffs -, one would say that the lower side of the cliffs is to the right side of the picture."

The only definitive clue to up/down orientation IMO are the cliff gullies which should be wider at the bottom than at the top.

[Bad Buoys]

There are a number of items of immediate interest.

One, which I had seen in another discussion, speculated on the formation of the type of surface seen in the lower right. That is almost identical to the surface we see on old, wind eroded ice.

Second, the red cliff bands periodically over the 1 km descent are almost identical to those behind Missoula, Montana where the large, prehistoric lake existed and which would occassionally flush, forming the Columbia Gorge; leaving a band where the shoreline had been.
Each of those bands, like the one at the bottom [again we see the rough ice ridge at the water [recently frozen] edge, is the shoreline where the water/ice remained for some time. I think it will be found that each particular band is at exactly the same elevation along its length with its meanderings due solely to the topography.

Third, the dark black item second from the right and which has a shepherd's hook at the top may be a fault. For some reason it seems to be spewing black material over the surface of the recent ice. And there appear to be other small vents such as one about a third of the way down the picture and on the second, narrow band from the left.

And fourth, just above that little vent and extending right to mid picture is some sort of red fan which may have been a landslide/avalanche.

Over the past six months, I've seen enough complex formations, too dangerous for a robot, that I would be supportive of a manned mission.

[Doum]

I like the video of it.

http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Mars_Express/S ... 3EE_0.html

Now with the topographic data it is possible to make a map for a computer game. Or just make the map to visit it more closely by walking onto it or into it.
Who will do it?

[Sputnick]

Buoys comments are excellent, thanks, Buoys!

Yes, I think the photo is accidently reversed.

I'm welcoming myself back after a summer away from Apod forum.

The vents in the upper left corner .. yes, very interesting .. supportive of my steam vent theory concerning Phoboes. And why should vents not erupt with steam and perhaps water and particulates of minerals which fan out down the slopes due to wind?

And the black stuff - coal? Tar sands? Yes, I do think Mars was a planet sustaining a 'civilization' which destroyed itself and the life forms of the planet in the same way our panet's 'civilization' is destroying itself and earth's life forms. When we are looking at Mars are we looking at earth in the future?

[Qev]

They do have that image backwards, because it looks like the HiRISE page also has this particular image backwards. The text is correct for the full-scale image, here:

http://hirise-pds.lpl.arizona.edu/PDS/E ... browse.jpg

The region shown in the colour image is pretty much dead-center in the larger image (rotated 180 degrees, of course).

[machinator]

Given that the picture is reversed and up is to the right,
The vent near the top appears to have melted the ice above it as if a warm gas was rising up the hill warm enough to melt the ice.