Planet Four Talk

Land Veins

  • dmacker by dmacker

    very strange formation, looks like veins

    Posted

  • mschwamb by mschwamb scientist, translator in response to dmacker's comment.

    They do look like veins. We call them "spiders". They are channels carved into the surface below the ice sheet of carbon dioxide that sits about the dirt. They are carved into the surface of Mars by carbon dioxide gas trapped under the thawing carbon dioxide ice sheet on the south pole of Mars. You can learn more about what these features are here and here.
    Cheers,
    ~Meg

    Posted

  • Paul_Johnson by Paul_Johnson

    I wonder if the surface CO2 ice is extremely clear, which would act to create a greenhouse effect and heat the gas underneath, causing it to expand, causing the venting we see?

    Posted

  • mschwamb by mschwamb scientist, translator in response to Paul Johnson's comment.

    exactly! the ice sheet is semitransparent. It has some of the atmospheric dust in it, so that's why we see the fans as dark features and disappear when the ice is gone because they just blend back into the rest of the soil
    ~Meg

    Posted