Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to re: the "geyser" image

re: the "geyser" image
Michael Gmirkin — (archived)

Erm, here's a better picture of some of the longer dust devil tracks:
http://www.marsunearthed.com/SelectedImages/ArgyrePlanitia/ArgyrePlanitia.htm

From:
http://www.marsunearthed.com/SelectedImages/SelectedImages.htm

But I'd assume that if a dust devil were stationary it would simply leave a big ol' black spot as it interacts with the particular spot it's machining. Who knows might even eject some of the material and make a mini crater or something...

Though I doubt they're stong enough discharges to really crater anything. Just blacken and eject a bit around the base.

Again with what's describe on the site as "dark branching growth-like" pattern. Well, except for the fact that it appears blackened, assuming that's semi-true grayscale and not like a temperature map or other weirdly not-quite-right type picture.

A good exmaple of "spiders" or Sir Arthur C. Clarke's "trees."
http://www.marsunearthed.com/SelectedImages/ACClarkeTrees/ACClarkeTrees.htm

Unfortunately, they look more like electrically generated Lichtenberg figures than "trees."

Here's a photo of the glacier sublimating and revealing the surface below it, where most of the figures actually ARE (etched into the surface).
http://www.marsunearthed.com/SelectedImages/SouthPolarDunes/SouthPolarDunes.htm

Unusual "branching features" of the region... Unusual, unless we consider the interconnectedness as electrical arcing induced, perhaps...?
http://www.marsunearthed.com/SelectedImages/028/028.htm

Again a massively blackened region.
http://www.marsunearthed.com/SelectedImages/031/031.htm

However, we get more clues in the form of spiders off to the sides. I think what we're seeing is the remnant scarring of individual arc discharges around the edges, and a massive field of super-scarred terrain as the blackened feature in the middle. It's literally just massively overlapping electrical scarring, and I'm sure if this was zoomed in on we'd see multiple multiple overlapping Lichtenbergs. It's just a matter of understanding what we'relooking at in context. And the smaller figures off to the sides of the region give us our rosetta stone. The larger region is simply a larger concentration of whatever is on the outsides. And i can all but guarantee it's not "trees" and I sure has heck wouldn't want to stand in the middle of it without a bunch of lightning rods a safe distance away, just in case it's ever still active. Though, i think MArs has quieted down in the last few thousand years electrically as it's come into electrical balance with the rest of the solar system (however we still see active processes on some of the younger planets and moons: IO, enceladus, callisto, ganymede, titan, venus).

Spiders all over the place in this one... Some nice arcs of 'em too...
http://www.marsunearthed.com/SelectedImages/061/061.htm

More extremely distinctive "spiders"
http://www.marsunearthed.com/SelectedImages/168/168.htm

Terraced landform. Butagain tons of dust devil tracks around the south polar region...
http://www.marsunearthed.com/SelectedImages/157/157.htm

More dust devil tracks...
http://www.marsunearthed.com/SelectedImages/213/213.htm

Though the more dust devil tracks I see, the more they seem to not hold still or stay in one place... They seem to make a bit of Chaos. That's not to say they coudln't stay still. But, okay, maybe dust devils aren't the cause of the "geyser"-ish looking phenomenon...

Anyone know where EXACTLY around the south pole the "geyser" photos were taken? Are they only in a specific area of the pole? Everywhere on the pole, only over one particular feature (crater, or something else?)

I guess my question is whether they're specific to ONLY ONE PLACE on the polar cap(s) or are they ubiquitous over the entire polar cap? If the're NOT ubiquitous, what makes them gather in only one spot? And where is that spot, and what's special about that one spot that can't be said of other spots in the same region or at the same latitude, etc?

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