It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
In Mars' polar regions, carbon dioxide freezes up to 2 feet thick. As the Sun begins to thaw the ice it turns into a gas. The gas release carries dark sand and dust, moving them down the steep sides of the dunes.
Originally posted by Staroth
reply to post by eisegesis
Your video shows surface and looks nothing like the OP's picture.
The phenomenon is driven by the springtime thawing of a surface layer of frozen carbon dioxide, also known as dry ice.
This thawing occurs first on the ice layer's underside, which is in contact with the warming ground, researchers said. The dry ice sublimes from a solid state to a gaseous one, and pressure builds as more and more gas is produced and trapped.
Eventually, cracks form in the ice and some of the carbon dioxide gas breaks free, forming temporary grooves in the dune as it hisses out.
The escaping gas also carries sand, which forms dark streaks as it spills across the dry ice covering the dune. These dark fans disappear as the seasonal ice evaporates, and Martian winds erase most of the newly formed grooves before the next winter and springtime roll around.
Originally posted by MysticEngineer
reply to post by WanderingThe3rd
Sure, or you can go here for the real explanation, but basically it's a filled crater with collapsed side.
PSP_010086_2615
Originally posted by WanderingThe3rd
This looks like a UFO for sure..... metallic, round, shining, reflecting, and there is a path it came from as it crashed, and its even half under the sand
some of the movements in the sand on top of it suggest this picture was taking as it was crashing
Originally posted by Cynicaleye
70°39'27.99" S 48°15'23.56" E
I have come across this on Google mars (yes, i know), I would usually rubbish anything found on there yet this interests me. It could be a mapping glitch but then why is there a black trail behind the blue object/glitch? Is this just a regular occurrence in the landscape that i'm not aware of? Could it be a comet/meteorite?
The process happens every Martian spring. The frozen carbon dioxide — dry ice — lies in layers on the dark basalt formations below it. During the thaw, the first ice to "melt" is the layer closest to the dark and sandy surface. What is really happening is the frozen CO2 is thawing into its gaseous state and building up enormous pressure under the surface of the top ice. Eventually, the pressure causes cracks in the surface where the gas jets out, forming grooves on the surface and brining up bits of the basalt and sand with it.
Once released, the CO2 condenses, dragging the surface material back down with it. Those dark fans formed on the surface show where the CO2 landed after escaping under extreme pressure. If there's some wind, the fans can be even more pronounced and streaked.
Originally posted by billy565
I'll say what everyone is thinking but are afraid to say.....I'll say it......Martians!