Can anyone tell me what I'm looking at in this photo of Mars' surface?

postimg.org...

postimg.org...

postimg.org...

postimg.org...


Is it just me, or do these look like caves?

They look like shadows to me.
If you check out the video from Google earth about mars, at the very end you see the same 'shadows'
a reply to: LiquidNova

originally posted by: LiquidNova

Is it just me, or do these look like caves?

Could be. They could be very shallow, or they could be shadows. Indeed, would it not be surprising if there were no caves on Mars? At least you're not saying they are Sasquatchs hiding in them.

All I'm saying is why arent we driving the rovers into these things lol.


oh, wait, the whole solar power thing, never mind It would be interesting to explore a cave on that planet.

originally posted by: LiquidNova

Is it just me, or do these look like caves?

I don't think they're caves. A grey scale image layer acquired by MRO's CTX Context Camera is available for that area, here goes an animated GIF switching between the two layers (at coordinates 21°53'52.17" N 73°07'31.62" W):



A few hundred meters to the east there is another section with a dark area which is also available in a higher resolution layer:



On the first CTX image, the features seem to be absent (or not too distinctive), so wind erosion might be involved. In the second GIF above, they are visible in both images. I would say they are layers of darker sand covering the surface (or some kind of albedo features, or a mixture of both), but it's still kind of strange that they are so pronounced in the original OP image.

originally posted by: LiquidNova
All I'm saying is why arent we driving the rovers into these things lol.


oh, wait, the whole solar power thing, never mind

It would be interesting to explore a cave on that planet.

Leaves Solar panel dish outside caves, connects 2000 ft extension cord then lets rover - lander secondary "drones" into caves...
Drone and rover waiting at cave entrance, immediately redirected to study scrap yards by
Rover returns to "scrap yards" evaluations looking back at caves entrance and says I'LL BE BAQ.
Notices blaq op camp off in the distance screaming we told you all not to go there.
Rover hurry's along confused, left to study those land-avian MARS... That the humans just call simple Mars rocks and artifacts on the prepared images for mass population sharing

a reply to: LiquidNova
Whatever they are prepared as, they are interesting to consider LiquidNova
As well as where they may lead. OlympusMons seems to find attraction to 1z rv,at sense...

a reply to: LiquidNova

Though I have no doubt whatsoever that caves exist on Mars (old lava tubes - possibly quite large, here's a picture of one - and maybe some created when Mars had a lot of flowing water), I don't think these are caves.

For one thing, the edges of the features are feathered, not sharp. This is consistent with what you get when two types of sand are adjacent; either the light blows onto the dark or vice-versa.

For another thing, these features are very large. One of them is 3km across!

Lastly, zoom-out and look at the larger context. This area is at the source of Kasei Valley - a fantastic mega-flood feature. as you follow its track to the east you can see darker sediment spread-out on the floor of the valley. What you have found may be the source of these sediments.

Fortuitously, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took a high-resolution (12m/pixel) image of one of the features. I don't have time, but if someone can bring-up and crop image M0904762 we can all get a good look at it.

a reply to: LiquidNova
Bunch of shadows by the looks of it

There are other "crater" formations on Mars that look like this and were classified as airburst meteor depressions, most likely caused by very friable material like comet fragments. Common on Earth, as well. The dark interiors and very shallow crater walls, with debris halo's are characteristic of this type of impact.

a reply to: LiquidNova

Some of them look like body's of fluid to me, could even be tar pit's if Mars did have a biosphere in the past, just a thought though and of course temperature is very low so that is the reason I am not suggesting liquid water, indeed even tar pit's would be solid and covered by dust at those temperatures so in reality we can rule that out as well, unless of course these are geological hot spot's, mars is not totally dead after all though it's core does seem to have suffered a death blow at some point which also may have caused the formation of Olympus monze and the huge martian rift valley but there may still be some geological activity or residual hot spot's beneath the surface.

Intriguing though they could also simply be as the label suggest's Shadow's, odd for them to be so deep though especially when surrounded by powdery terrain and of course given the size of the Valles Marineras feature's such as fractures (cave's, cavern's and sub martian rift's similar to marinares but not exposed at the surface) may be found right around the plant itself so cave's are a definitely probability and of course some of them could be huge enough to swallow a hell of a lot of dust before being hidden from view, other's may open up periodically exposing void's like sink hole's and of course carbon dioxide ice with it's periodic melting may be and very probably could be responsible for creating real sink hole as well.

a reply to: LiquidNovaI don't know about the other three but the second one is the batman signal. Commissioner Gordon is in a jam and flashed the spotlight to Mars to find the Caped Crusader!

These look like accumulations of dark sand, or exposed patches of dark bedrock.



The largest spot actually seems to be on the slope of a hill:


Tip for looking at Mars in Google Earth: in the "Layers" menu, go to Global Maps and tick the CTX Mosaic option. This will "coat" Mars with this relatively high-rez imagery I and a few others posted here.

P.S. I found an excellent CTX image of the area: link

Here's a closeup of the largest "spot"


And another excellent CTX image with the rightmost spot: link

a reply to: wildespace

You are absolutely correct.

a reply to: LiquidNova

After having looking at the pics, I think they are either vertical holes in the ground, vast in size and depth or, they are simply voids of nothingness in the ground.

perhaps some concentration of invisible frequency.

So, lets see some simile on Earth.

Shallow impacts
Irregular impacts