Parallel ridges

• by GeoffRoynon

  How are these parallel ridges/lines/features formed?

  Posted January 8, 2013 3:51 PM

• by brainimpact

  Could it have been caused by Ice movement? I know those similar kind of features have happened on earth due to moving ice sheets but I could be wrong

  Posted January 8, 2013 3:55 PM

• by michaelaye scientist in response to brainimpact's comment.

  These could be ridges from the Martian polar layered deposits. The poles undergo seasonal deposition effects, not my specialty but I think that could be it.

  Posted January 8, 2013 8:25 PM

• by michaelaye scientist

  ok, Anya (Portyankina) tells me that I'm most likely wrong and that these should be glacier traces, because polar layered deposits are not so parallel anymore at this high resolution.

  Posted January 9, 2013 12:47 AM

• by Portyankina scientist

  To my eye they look similar to glacier markings and I actually showed similar frame to a glaciologist today. He said, he has to see "larger picture" to say something definite. So, I'll follow up on this when software team releases to us some of your data and I can find out the location of these grooves.

  Cheers,
  Anya

  Posted January 10, 2013 2:41 AM

• by GeoffRoynon

  Thanks for the responses.

  Posted January 10, 2013 8:52 AM

• by salt74

  What about the small pathways you can see when Zooming in?

  Posted January 14, 2013 9:55 PM

• by Portyankina scientist

  So, news about this image are here. Not glacier marks but wind erosion features.

  Anya

  Posted January 15, 2013 5:19 AM

• by wassock moderator

  Can you clarify which bit is the groove, the dark lines or the bit in between? Either way how does an un even surface fit with the fan here talk.planetfour.org/#/subjects/APF0000970 - top left there is a fan coming from a very straight line. This fissure crosses one of the dark lines. If the fissure runs across an uneven surface why does it appear as a straight feature?

  Posted January 15, 2013 8:13 AM

• by wassock moderator

  Guess that a straight line is a straight line regardless of terrain if viewed from directly above?

  Posted January 15, 2013 10:37 AM

• by Portyankina scientist in response to wassock's comment.

  In this frame the whole area is covered by a layer of ice from 0.5 to 1 m thick. The ice 1) smoothens topography 2) is the media in which the straight line crack forms. I do not think that the yardangs are very large, they well might be meter-scale. They are btw what you call thin dark lines, positive topo.

  Anya

  Posted January 16, 2013 1:34 AM

• by wassock moderator

  OK that works. So all the structure we are seeing is beneath a basicly flat ice sheet?

  Posted January 16, 2013 1:53 AM

• by Portyankina scientist

  I don't think, the ice layer is completely flat. What we see is kind of fusion of something we are still able to see through the ice, something on top of the ice and something of ice topography. This mix complicates the view a lot...

  Anya

  Posted January 16, 2013 2:03 AM