Tag Archives: ice

Mars Express: Shaping the surface with water, wind, and ice

Posted on November 23, 2018 by rburnham

ESA’s Mars Express has imaged an intriguing part of the Red Planet’s surface: a rocky, fragmented, furrowed escarpment lying at the boundary of the northern and southern hemisphere. This region is an impressive example of past activity on the planet … Continue reading →

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HiRISE: Translucent ice

Posted on July 3, 2018 by rburnham

Translucent ice. Also note the polygonal ground, another feature of expanding and contracting subsurface ice. Beautiful Mars series. [More at links]

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Warmer, wetter early Mars: a geological and climatological case

Posted on May 3, 2018 by rburnham

The climate of early Mars is a subject of debate. While it has been thought that Mars had a warm and wet climate, like Earth, other researchers suggested early Mars might have been largely glaciated. A recent study by Ramses … Continue reading →

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HiRISE: Hexagons in icy terrain

Posted on January 23, 2018 by rburnham

Ground cemented by ice covers the high latitudes of Mars, much as it does in Earth’s cold climates. A common landform that occurs in icy terrain are polygons. Polygonal patterns form by winter cooling and contraction cracking of the frozen … Continue reading →

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Water-ice cliffs found in Mars’ mid-latitudes

Posted on January 11, 2018 by rburnham

Researchers using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have found eight sites where thick deposits of ice beneath Mars’ surface are exposed in faces of eroding slopes. These eight scarps, with slopes as steep as 55 degrees, reveal new information about … Continue reading →

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Ground ice lubricated Valles Marineris landslides

Posted on November 27, 2017 by rburnham

How good is your Martian geography? Does Valles Marineris ring a bell? This area is known for having landslides that are among the largest and longest in the entire solar system. They make the perfect object of study due to … Continue reading →

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Martian winters are shaping the landscape

Posted on October 27, 2017 by rburnham

Researchers based millions of kilometres from Mars have unveiled new evidence for how contemporary features are formed on the Red Planet. Their innovative lab-based experiments on carbon dioxide (CO2) sublimation – the process by which a substance changes from a … Continue reading →

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How water could flow on icy early Mars

Posted on October 18, 2017 by rburnham

Research by planetary scientists at Brown University finds that periodic melting of ice sheets on a cold early Mars would have created enough water to carve the ancient valleys and lakebeds seen on the planet today. For scientists trying to … Continue reading →

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CRISM: Ice on rim of crater on Alba Mons

Posted on September 21, 2017 by rburnham

Alba Mons is the largest volcano, by area, on Mars. A low-lying volcano in the northern Tharsis region, Alba Mons has an elevation of 6.8 km, and volcanic flow fields that extend at least 1,350 km from the summit. Alba … Continue reading →

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HiRISE: North polar layers: streaking and unconformity

Posted on September 20, 2017 by rburnham

In geology, an unconformity is a buried erosion surface, where the bedding layers don’t match. It doesn’t mean a mismatch in attitudes and beliefs, with rebellious behavior like streaking. But Mars does have streaking of a different kind, from the … Continue reading →

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