[X] My Assistant

[climber]

I'm wondering if HiRise would be powerfull enough to "see" the jets in action

[nprev]

I can't imagine why not given what we've seen so far, at least in a static sense.

What would be key, though, is the ability to re-image the same area within a few seconds or minutes to decisively detect geyser-like activity, and I don't know if it can do that.

[climber]

I can't imagine why not given what we've seen so far, at least in a static sense.

What would be key, though, is the ability to re-image the same area within a few seconds or minutes to decisively detect geyser-like activity, and I don't know if it can do that.

They said the're gonna do stereo view (of Victoria). Even a few day appart, stereo will show well if ther's a difference or not between two pictures taken at different times

[reikel]

I'm with Bill. I think "roaring jets of CO2" may be an exaggeration, and somewhat misleading. Perhaps more in the nature of regular, gentle "burps". A mud pool instead of a geyser.

Steve

Hello everyone, long time learner/ lurker here, first post. Regarding the geysers, there is a 6 year old image here that has always (to me) seemed to have given an appearance of geyser activity since it was first discovered. If you save and zoom in slightly at the "bottom" of the image strip, you can see what appears to be geysers erupting jets of material dispersing downwind and forming streaks/ pools of some substance or material. I want to mention that even given the ancilliary data, interpreting some of these images can be really difficult - so if am misinterpreting, let me know! I wonder if the geysers are more likely only the more visible part of a larger, more complex process and if trying to portray this as a one size fits all solution to vexing questions regarding dark spots/ dendritic features, etc. might be rushing for a simplistic answer? It will be interesting getting HiRISE images of such features.........

[edstrick]

That's a classic polar golly-gee-whiz-what's-that image. My wild-ass-guess take on what's going on is that there are two sets of plume deposits, one oriented toward 5:00 clock angle from the vents from the dominant during-venting wind direction, and the other, smaller ones, from fewer vents, pointing toward the 1:00 clock angle. The 5:00 angle plumes look somewhat "undecided" in terms of direction, as though they formed during somewhat variable-angle wind direction, while the second set looks to point in almost perfectly one direction.

[Phil Stooke]

The poles are totally wacky!

Phil

[babakm]

If I'm reading the numbers correctly, the sun is shining from the bottom of the image at a ~23% degree angle up from the horizon. The 1:00 O'clock plumes could be the shadows of active geysers.

One way to check with MRO could be to try to take high emission angle pictures of the area. I don't know if that is possible though.

[edstrick]

"Wacky"... another precise geologic term!

[JRehling]

At these polar latitudes I don't think the sun ever sets at the season when they form. You would have to explain why they don't happen at 2 PM and 2 AM (for imaging on the other node) local time when MGS goes over.

If this is a phenomenon that happens when the local temperature exceeds some threshold, then on a place with a strong diurnal temperature cycle, the events could be tightly constrained by time of day. No?

At high latitudes, I wouldn't expect 2 PM to be that far off of the daily maximum temperature, but a miss could be as good as a mile. Maybe we're missing a daily 1:45 PM fireworks show.