Tunnels on Mars?

Here is a section of the new Mars map on Google Maps:
Mars tunnels?

Let me know what you guys think.

reply to post by dalepmay


Those are old canals from when water use to be flowing on mars i assume. That or they're just sand dune formations from the wind.

It looks too flat on the surface to be any sort of real tunnel.

Good find though.

Any subject matter experts in the area?

~Keeper

reply to post by tothetenthpower


That's not a natural water flow pattern.
Can't really say if natural or artificial. Tunnels that cracked in might be an explanation.

There are caves, apparently from the volcanic activity of the past on Mars.

Here`s scientist Penelope Boston giving a quick presentation at TED.

reply to post by dalepmay


Giovanni Schiaparelli in 1877 & Percival Lowell in 1894 saw these 'canals on mars', I visited the Lowell observatory myself, cool place, Lowell's calculations and observations led to the discovery of Pluto so his work wasn't a waste, but the most powerful telescopes at the time could barley make out Mars in a blur and at times Lowell thought there were canals built by an intelligent race, he claimed they changed with the seasons and must be some type of global scale irrigation system martians used to to grow crops, he was wrong but some of what he saw were the natural marks on the surface such as this, some astronomers have later claimed to have been able to see what Lowell saw and it might have been the natural marks with some type of natural illusion, but there is obviously no intelligent life on mars.

astronomyhistory.suite101.com...

reply to post by dalepmay


Im seeing water trails as well...but I don't know if it has been mentioned that this is a fairly small portion of the planet that has been stretched, and looped, as it were. This looks like one continuous lay of terrain, but it is not...

I initially thought, why can we have such a high res pic of Mars, but not on the moon, but then I realized this is a repeated image of a small section...

Good find though. S&F

It reminds me of floating ice. Imagine that some volcanic activity made the ground rise ever so slightly in that area, it would raise a bit and crack, then the wind could dig out the rest.

[edit on 2-2-2009 by etombo]

When large areas of gound dry out, they tend to contract, leaving cracks in the ground, it happens on small and large scales.

Tunnels are tube like structures that are underground,
I see linear type depressions on the surface.

This may indicate, drying ground, if they were tunnels, they are now collapsed.

Lava tubes do not form linking tunnels in a matrix as is displayed in the image, to my knowledge.

I have seen some images that suggest frozen lakes with ice flows dusted over.

It doesn't look like them.

I am leaning towards, contracting ground formations.