Mars Ice craters

[Marsrocks]

Below is a picture of Louth crater.



This is a massive crater in the northern hemisphere of Mars not far from the north pole - and filled with ice.

On Google Earth - Mars it is located at:

70°14'56.29"N 103°15'13.25"E

Ice craters make excellent possible places for future astronauts to land - as they may provide water.

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050720.html

And yes - they believe this to be frozen H2O and not frozen carbon dioxide - as explained further here:

www.esa.int/esaMI/Mars_Express/SEMGKA808BE_0.html

Louth crater has been extensively imaged by Hirise and other missions. Here is one picture of the center of the ice:

hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_006869_2505

[Marsrocks]

A number of deep pits have also been imaged - which are holes in the landscape above an ancient volcano.

They are also candidates for future exploration:

















This group is also referred to as "cave entrances" or "skylights." The whole group in the set shown above is found scattered about the side of an ancient volcano called Arsia Mons. An article is up here that tells you more about them - though the coordinates they give - using themis coordinates do not correspond well with the google earth coordinates.

If you want to find these on google earth - go to arsia mons, and then check sites with hirise images - most of those images are of these holes.

www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000984/

[Marsrocks]

I was recently contacted by Mitch Gingras, a pilot who has discovered some dark spots in some old MOC images in a different region.


One of these dark spots is at this spot on google earth mars:

20°59'45.64"N 103°18'8.57"E

The other dark spots are close to that one.













This is a link to the main one:

www.msss.com/moc_gallery/ab1_m04/nonmaps/M0401438.gif

See also: S2000466

[Marsrocks]

What Mitch tells me is that - well - in his words:

"I'm no expert nor rocket scientist, but the black crater in the attached file isn't filled with carbon or a fresh impact crater. Zoom in and you'll see gentle wisps of ground frost stretching away from the crater. Notice that no impact debris is anywhere on top of these wisps.



Finally, look to a larger nearby crater that will tell the rest of the story. You will find along the upper region of the crater rim what appears to be a mud formation coming out of the crater wall. Notice also the position of the Sun arc against this wall. We would easily conclude that the sun's rays are warming permafrost out of the crater walls and sliding down the sides to the crater bottom.
Give this scenario a bit more work and the sun could melt enough permafrost below the water table and presto! Like a cork blowing, the water table comes spewing into the crater and fills it to brim. Then flash freezes over the first Mars night.
There you have it. The crater is black because it is simply frozen water. Proof? the MGS took the pic before the Mars-wide dust storm. If they re-took the same pic. the dust would have covered the ice and may be completely obscured. But! There you have it."
-Mitch

Mitch also said:

"I used to be a Arctic pilot flying around the Baffin Island region in the 90's and have seen what looks like black holes, but is really frozen ice ponds with no snow. I expect the same laws of physics apply to Mars.
Doesn't seem that mysterious to me. But if we haven't seen it before then is a little harder to understand."

Mitch identified this crater called Pingualuit crater as a similar earth comparison.

The coordinates of Pingualuit crater in Canada on Google Earth are: 61°16'27.71"N 73°39'16.30"W.

Here are some links to lower pics of the crater:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingualuit_crater

www.cen.ulaval.ca/pingualuit/CraterLakeRF2.jpg

www.parcsnunavik.ca/images/contenu/galerie/pleinecran/X6P3614.jpg

[Marsrocks]

Now, I'm no expert on this either, but there is an interesting piece of information which seems to fit very nicely with Mitch's theory.

Checking elevation on google earth (and who knows how good that is), I found that Pingualuit crater shows an elevation very close to ground elevation - just as it should since the ice - and sometimes water is even with the ground surface.

I then checked his black spots - and each of those spots also showed they were very even with the surrounding surface, at most 1-3 feet different in elevation than the surrounding surface!

[Marsrocks]

We know there are probably oceans of ice just under the dusty surface of Mars in some areas... and so this theory is consistent with those findings as well.

www.mars.asu.edu/christensen/advancedmarsclass/janhunen_jgr_2002.pdf

www.marsdaily.com/news/mars-water-science-05a.html

From here Mitch let me in on a couple of interesting ideas that flow from this theory. So, I'll let Mitch jump in here if he wants to share his other theories.

[crowwind]

Mar 29, 2012 15:43:56 GMT -5 Marsrocks said:

We know there are probably oceans of ice just under the dusty surface of Mars in some areas... and so this theory is consistent with those findings as well.

www.mars.asu.edu/christensen/advancedmarsclass/janhunen_jgr_2002.pdf

www.marsdaily.com/news/mars-water-science-05a.html

From here Mitch let me in on a couple of interesting ideas that flow from this theory. So, I'll let Mitch jump in here if he wants to share his other theories.

[crowwind]

If it really is possible to find craters filled to the brim with ice, then we have an opportunity to send automated systems that can dig out or melt out deep holes in the ice and create sub habitation areas like we do subway systems. The real bonus is that natural light can filter through the ice, cosmic rays will be filtered out and of course abundant water. Needless to say we can use some of our icy home to create hydrogen fuel for unimportant things rocket fuel.
After a few years of remote testing, we might be ready to send humans to Mars. And get them home again.