Mars - miscellaneous anomalies

[tholden]

Oh, that is scary. What the heck are they.

Probably trees....

[mharratsc]

My guess is that they are crystalline structures growing under the influence of sheets of plasma. Notice how they are all linear, following the topology in a knife edge (much like the auroras)? Know how all those weird crystalline growths form in caves? Or how you can get iron filings to stand up in a formation if you hold a magnet up above them at a certain distance?

I was under the impression that the north pole of Mars is where electrical excavation occurs, and the south pole is where electrical deposition occurs. Can any plasma guys tell us if they ever see any kind of material behavior while using electrical discharge machining that looks anything like this?

[mharratsc]

Here's a link to a pic on this subject I found interesting. EU proposes that portions of Mars are subject to greater and lesser electrical stress. Notice in this picture that- if you come up from the bottom towards the top- it seems that suddenly you run into an area that is simply scorched.

Good ol' NASA doesn't even attempt to explain why there is such an abrupt change in the topography. Interestingly enough- after the demarcation line (you'll know it when you see it) you see that all of the surface from that point up in the photo exhibit those strange scalloped dunes that have been suggested to be electrical in origin in other posts here in the forums.

http://hirise-pds.lpl.arizona.edu/PDS/EXTRAS/RDR/PSP/ORB_007900_007999/PSP_007962_2635/PSP_007962_2635_RGB.NOMAP.browse.jpg

[tholden]

We actually have things which produce "tantalizing tree illusions" here on Earth:

[GaryN]

I wonder what the odds are of so many impactors hitting the edge of the crater rim, and leaving what look like scorch marks(upper-mid right). Also, there are craters that look like they are perpendicular to the quite steep sides of some ridges(lower right of image, for one), though that may be due to angles/perspectives.

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

[neilwilkes]

I wonder what the odds are of so many impactors hitting the edge of the crater rim, and leaving what look like scorch marks(upper-mid right). Also, there are craters that look like they are perpendicular to the quite steep sides of some ridges(lower right of image, for one), though that may be due to angles/perspectives.

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

Looks like a lot of those round objects in the upper section - mainly upper left - are not craters at all but protrusions that almost look like heat bubbles in paint that is being stripped with these paint stripping devices.

[nick c]

Don't know how would you could figure the probabilities involved, but it appears that there are many aspects to craters (on Mars and other bodies) that present probability issues for the impact theory:
-craters on the highpoint of rims of larger craters
-the high percentage of circular craters
-the occurence of hexagonal shaped craters
-bulls eye craters
-domed craters
-pedastal craters
and so on.


Some recommended reading:

TPOD "Domed Craters on Mars"
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/ ... raters.htm

TPOD "Craters on Planets and Moons"
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/ ... raters.htm

This cratering mechanism explains not only the glass beads and brecciated rocks, but many other features which fit poorly into the impact explanation, such as flat bottoms, terraced walls, central peaks and secondary craters centered on the rims of larger craters.

TPOD subject index for craters:
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/00sub ... tm#Craters

for Mars:
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/00sub ... tm#Planets

"Sprial Galaxies and the Grand Canyon," (much of the article concerns geological features of Mars)
http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=rnde0zza

Nick

[starbiter]

If you look at the group of three craters in the right center of the top link, it looks like a wind from the NNE [if up is North] caused sand to accumulate on the leeward side of the crater rims, with dunes in the center of the craters. With the resent planet wide sand storms on Mars, this would seem appropriate.

This Tpod shows a part of the storm.

http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2007/ ... devils.htm

[GaryN]

neilwilkes posted:

Looks like a lot of those round objects in the upper section - mainly upper left - are not craters at all but protrusions that almost look like heat bubbles in paint that is being stripped with these paint stripping devices.

Not quite sure exactly where you are looking, but particularly with the grayscale images I have found myself seeing craters as blisters, a whole screen full sometimes. I have to look away for a couple of seconds, and when I look back, they are all craters again!

[FS3]

Meridiani Planum was chosen as a central reference point for Mars' geographical coordinate system once. Now it may provide another reference point -- a starter to rethink some ol'fashioned theories, so to say:

On 1 September 2005 the ESA-Mars Express' High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) took the image of some "dark material" covering the floor of an impact crater, published on the ESA-site today:

ESA Mars Express News: Volcanic ash in Meridiani Planum

But where ESA scientists prefer to see "volcanic ash", plasma scientists with knowledge of the EU may recognize electric scars instead -- footprints of a discharge painting the floor of the impact crater with black remains of pyroxene and olivine.



As if you take a closer look towards the edges of that black area you will recognize typical patterns of Lichtenberg Figures, remains of branching electric discharges that appear on the surface of insulating materials.

While ESA scientists think that it is "...likely that this material was blown into the smaller crater from the larger one,..."... and ..."...the nearly black structures are almost certainly dunes made of volcanic ash-rich sediments..." one might conclude from the almost identical pattern at the elevation map that the black sedimentation and the topology are connected with each other.


Occams Razor anyone? - And! - Are there any physicists left at the ESA?

FS3

[bandsox]

Where?

I looked closely at the 52MB hi-res TIFF but I can't see the Lichtenburg Forms you describe.

Am I looking in the wrong place? Any chance you could upload a zoomed in screencap to show what you mean?

Thank you!

Band

[FS3]

Hi,

Where?

I looked closely at the 52MB hi-res TIFF but I can't see the Lichtenburg Forms you describe.

Am I looking in the wrong place? Any chance you could upload a zoomed in screencap to show what you mean?

Thank you!

Band

Look at the part at the lower side of the big crater. You may see it even better on the elevation-pic (below - look at the darkest area), as the rocks may be confusing.



The smaller crater on the left shows as well a Lichtenberg pattern although the edges are blurred more.

You might recognize it better first on the smaller pic.

FS3

[starbiter]

The image is very cool. Lots of info. It appears to me that a plasma event of some sort came from the lower right. If N is up, the SE side of the main crater has no ridge. The current was flowing to the NW. The ridges on the NW side of the crater were caused by the current traveling to the the NW. The current caused increased heating where it encountered opposition [the ridges]. It burned the rock causing cinders or basalt [burnt rock]. It did the same thing to the small crater to the NW.

There could have been two events. The fainter large ring on the SE side could have been made after the main crater was formed. But the small NW crater shows NW directionality, without a second ring.

The mountains and deserts of the US, SW are covered with the same patterns of directionality.

michael

[FS3]

Onby the possible excavating path of the two current-columns (in green and pink), as they move along the surface on Mars:



Notice, that the direction of the traces of black material is NOT in one direction only, as we would see it with wind-blows. Especially at those two points (bigger circles) where I think the primary "touch-down" did take place the distribution pattern is characteristical for the burnings by an electric arc.

FS3

[StevenJay]

I love it! The higher the resolution this kind of image displays,the more blatant the electrical nature of it all becomes. I mean, can anyone not see where a planet-scaled plasma tourch (of sorts) was dragged across the terrain?