Help searching HiRISE images Options

[RobertEB]

Wow. When this is your first pick - yes, I can see "addictive", alright:

http://hirise-pds.lpl.arizona.edu/PDS/EXTR...RED.abrowse.jpg

Lateral moraines, yes?

I have been thinking that very same thing every since I studied the MOC images from this area.

[RobertEB]

You and me both!

To me, this looks like Hellas was once situated on or near a pole. That looks like the polar layered terrain, except that all the ice has been removed. You see a lot of that taffy-like look at the edges of some of the polar layered terrain, it's highly reminiscent of these images of Hellas.

I would be very, very skeptical of the idea that you're seeing old terrain that used to underlie Hellas. When a basin that large is formed, you pretty well demolish the entire target, sometimes to depths well into the mantle. These landforms are far more well preserved than anything I would expect to see underneath the basin floor. Also, on Mars, a basin like this would fill in over time, not be continually scoured down to below the original basin floor. I'd almost have to believe that anything we see on the floor of Hellas has been deposited since the basin's formation.

-the other Doug

Some of the features look like eroded domes, but that can't account for it all.

The impact had to melted the basin. It probably stayed hot for a long time. I don't know if that caused any of what we are seeing.

I have studied geology (I minored in it and taught it) and I can't find anything on Earth that is similar to this. I have seen the folds in the Rocky Mountains, but that was due to plate tectonics. I don't know what this is.

I wish they would send a lander with a rover into Hellas.

[RobertEB]

Could there be a glacier like slurry of ice and rock slowly flowing across this surface? If that is true there should be deformed craters. I have spotted what may be a couple. However there is a lot of round craters. If this stuff was moving, it has either stopped, or is moving very slow.

Here is another shot

[dvandorn]

I don't know that the landforms are in notion... and like I say, they resemble, to me, what we see in some of the polar areas. For example, here's an image of an area where several types of north polar terrains are exposed. I see a lot of resemblance here to what you've pointed out in Hellas and what we see in the polar regions:

Polar terrains

See what I mean? There are a lot of places in current polar terrain that look like this, too...

-the other Doug

[RobertEB]

I don't know that the landforms are in notion... and like I say, they resemble, to me, what we see in some of the polar areas. For example, here's an image of an area where several types of north polar terrains are exposed. I see a lot of resemblance here to what you've pointed out in Hellas and what we see in the polar regions:

Polar terrains

See what I mean? There are a lot of places in current polar terrain that look like this, too...

-the other Doug

Maybe.

Longer monitoring of the area...and a lander... might help

[Stu]

Glad you're all having fun with that site! Told you it was addictive!

[RobertEB]

Glad you're all having fun with that site! Told you it was addictive!

So I can blame you for my addiction

Actually, This just furthers my addiction. I don't know how many hours I spent pouring over the MOC images over the years. I bet my wife knows

[monitorlizard]

I haven't been able to access the HiRISE image map at "global-data.mars.asu.edu" for the last two days. I'm assuming that the map is offline to load the latest PDS release of HiRISE images. Can anyone confirm this or provide any other insight to this problem. Thanks.

[Stu]

I can't get on the site either - any of the maps, actually. I've emailed them to ask what the problem is.

[monitorlizard]

I'm able to get the HiRISE image map now. It must have been that the site was down to load the March PDS release images.