Plume's of Steam on Mars ... (pics!)

Having enjoyed looking at all the Mars photo's available lately, I commonly zoom in to look at the details.

I found something very interesting.

It appears, that there surface 'vents' or 'fissure's' that are emitting a plume of a gas. Whether it is steam, sulfur gas, or smoke, I can not tell. But what I can tell is it appears to be three of them in the following picture.



The next picture has the arrows indicating my description of the plume's.

Yellow Arrows ... points to plume source.
Green Arrows ... indicates a prevailing wind that carries all three plume's 'downwind'.
Red Circle ... General area of individual plume.



Notice how the plume 'smoke' seems to be blowing up and out from the point of origin, then the smoke gets cought in the breeze, blows downwind, and dissipates shortly thereafter. I have studied these pictures, and there appears, in the single plume, that the smoke is opaque and the rock just behind it, can be made-out fairly clearly.


Below are two 'zoomed-out shots I priovided for reference to the actual shot, for your own verification if you wish, on the plume's location.








So what could these be?

If it is a pressurized gas release, then, could it be steam? Or is it more likely planetary flatulations of another type?


..

i'd say it's just dust. i've seen fine, powdery snow blow like that when there's wind.

i'd say that they're just rocks. you can clearly see similar shadows throughout the latter two pictures you displayed.

interesting observations

but it is very hard to see, I am not sure what I am really looking at.

i circled the what i was talking about.

I have been back and forth on the BIG picture it is from, zooming in on many things that may appear similar, but when zoomed in on, they usually just looks like rocks and dirt.


That one area cought my attention, as it appeared the image actually grabbed a shot of a gas release from the surface.

the smaller circle on the left.....maybe something???
but it could also be dust

but I really can't see anything in the other circle.

I understand what you are suggesting cmdrkeenkid


But the rock you circled surely doesnt resemble a gaseous vent, I have described in the white square.




But the opaque-ness of the plume is what I found interesting, as that made it stand out as not just another rock or dirt pile, as it indicates to me that that was an active occurance at the time the image was taken.

..



[Edited on 16-3-2004 by smirkley]

I see them plain as day. Extremely interesting. I still think that there could be life on mars and the heat that would make up the difference from the sun comes from the planet itself. Such an interesting planet.

Great observation.

[Edited on 16-3-2004 by godservant]

i didn't circle the first things i saw either. and didn't you notice the similarities in shading and direction between what i circled? my point was, just because something stands out, and flows the same doesn't make it anything. what you found could have just been dust, or the surface of rocks at an odd angle. maybe even some sort of martian mirage. mars does have a different atmosphere, so who knows what temperature or what atmospheric anomalies could cause that. i do not, however, think that it's some form of gas.

My regrets and apologies for the knee jerk.


I did notice the geometry in what you circled.
And yes there are resemblence.

To me, the plumes I am describing remind me of something you might find at Yellowstone or near a volcano.

..


[Edited on 16-3-2004 by smirkley]

This is a very interesting and great observation, I sometimes wonder if members of ATS observe and investigate photos of mars more detailed then people at NASA. In my opinion the first time I saw the photos, It looks like steam coming out of the group, as they are identical length and distance, and have a shadow at the bottom of them. I'm just still mesmerized by how beautiful the mars surface and sky truly is. By the way, anyone figure out what the bright white spot is on the upper right hand corner is?

[Edited on 16-3-2004 by IKnowNothing]

Originally posted by smirkley
My regrets and apologies for the knee jerk.

none needed, i wasn't offended or anything. if i seemed to be, it wasn't my intent. just voicing my opinion, not attacking you in any way

I did notice the geometry in what you circled.
And yes there are resemblence.

To me, the plumes I am describing remind me of something you might find at Yellowstone, and resemble a pattern that appears to be a source, and a plume.

i agree that the do resemble a plume, but as do mine, but of black smoke. the plumes i pointed out are of about the same dimesion, darkness, and size. i know that it's clearly rock shadow, though. i'm just saying mine could be interperated as smoke as well is all.

Originally posted by IKnowNothing
By the way, anyone figure out what the bright white spot is on the upper right hand corner is?

[Edited on 16-3-2004 by IKnowNothing]

it could be frost. that's what i think it is at least. there is water on mars, just not in liquid form (that we know of yet).

Interesting and quite hopeful observations, but rocks and dirt in the end.

its a gas plume, probably CO2 or maybe a sulfur mix. This location is on the rim of an impact crater and its possible that the impact created a fissure deap below the surface that connects to a thermal "water" table.

or possibly the subterranean "worms or crabs" dig through the soil which occassionally get blasted by ebbing water flows that seperate the higher velocity gases that eventually vent to the surface.

They're obviously rocks....

Correct, its rocks and dust, as I'm sure we will see as Spirit hopefully goes into the crater in the next few weeks.

If those were vents and the gas was blown sideways in a plume like that, especially in the thin atmosphere, there would be a whole crapload of dust blown up around them. Plus remember that crater is very old, if they were vents there would be some sort of build up around them.

Space.com has a zoom view of that crater. They took out the shiny object though.

But seriously, those first few pictures did create the illusion that there were really small jets of gas with really little force behind them. I thought the matter being blown up was the sand on the ground.

But, if it looks like a rock...

DeltaChaos