NASA takes Canadian cue to explore Martian grooves for ice

CBC ^ | 3/18/04

[LibWhacker]

ST. JOHN'S, NFLD. - Canadian scientists have found some intriguing similarities between grooves caused by icebergs and marks on the surface of the Red Planet.

Chris Woodworth-Lynas normally sets his sights on the ocean floor, studying how icebergs scour the seabed. Oil and gas companies need the information to lay down pipelines.

After work, Woodworth-Lynas applied his skills to Mars.

"There has been theories that there was perhaps an ocean or series of oceans in the north polar regions," said Woodworth-Lynas.

When Woodworth-Lynas downloaded NASA's orbital photos of Mars from 1997, he was able to resolve features. On their own time, he and a colleague thought they spotted scour marks and published the idea.

It touched off a debate on whether the marks were made by lava or ice.

"If these were formed by icebergs these would be very interesting," said Lazslo Keszthelyi of the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Ariz. "It would mean that large areas of Mars in the relatively recent past were covered with water and a layer of ice on top of that, and that ice was actually breaking up and moving around."

Keszthelyi is in charge of the camera for the next orbiter mission to Mars. He is so impressed that he will make sure the lens is aimed at the potential scour marks.

NASA almost missed them. Newfoundland is one of the few places where offshore oil and gas intersect with the reality of icebergs for experts to study.

Woodworth-Lynas said the ocean troughs he sees are full of sea life. If the Martian ones are troughs too, he said they may be the best place to look for fossilized signs of past life.

[ElkGroveDan]

pictures? Must I go find them?

[ElkGroveDan]

Sheesh it took some doing but I did track down some photos. There was one of those huge scientific reports in pdf form. I was able to extract an image using photoshop:

Figure 2 MOC image (southern Echus Chasma) of a 2 km-wide group of curved, wind-driven ice keel scour marks terminating in transverse ice-push ridges. MOC image M14-00193. Scaled pixel width: 11.6 m; Scaled image width: 2.96 km.

Source: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/polar2003/pdf/download/alpha_t-z.pdf

[ElkGroveDan]

ping

[Phil V.]

Yer makin' this stuff up, aren't you Dan.

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Oh BTW even more intriguing is this Martian kochina doll discovered by Opportunity . . .

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If you'd like to be on or off this MARS ping list please FRail me.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Phil V.]

;)

[LibWhacker]

Oh, thanks for that, Dan! Very interesting. Got called away from the computer and couldn't answer.

Weird to think of icebergs on Mars, but it makes sense.

[Fledermaus]

Doesn't Canada have enough ice of their own? ;-)

[R. Scott]

Well, Canadians should be experts on ice …

[airborne]

Excellent work. Or should I say ... GROOVY!

[blengi]

Howdy folks! Hmmm, someone tell my eyes are deceiving me... but anyone notice conelike formation near the hills top/right of pic? Looks kind of interesting. Be kool if was some sort of venting structure for sake of geologic variety and in terms of biological potential could liven things up. Wonder if it's related to the differing black dust acquired by boneville over the generic basaltic sands found thus far in most other places in gusev?

[LibWhacker]

lol

[ElkGroveDan]

Darn good catch...reminiscint of the cinder cones in the Owens Valley in Eastern California, or the Amboy crater out along old Route 66 in Southern Cal.

[Pagey]

bttt

[GeronL]

A lot of work for a picture. Worth it in this case. Interesting.

[Searching4Justice]

great photo...reminds me of a glacier deposit with atleast one surface of these rocks seeming kind of smooth and they appear to be in some kind of line (perhaps indicating the direction of the glacial flow)....no reason to think they dont also have geothermal events on Mars like on Earth, and I would think there is plenty of heat at Mars' core to sustain those type of events....It probably has plate tectronics also which could account for the emergence/disappearance of mountains and buttes.