Mysterious New Gully Spotted on Mars

[n2doc]

A new gully has appeared on a sloped crater wall on Mars. The channel, which was absent from images in November 2010 but showed up in a May 2013 photo, does not appear to have been formed by water. Exactly what caused this Red Planet rivulet remains a mystery.

The winding gully seems to have poured out from an existing ribbon channel in a crater in Mars’ Terra Sirenum region. The leading hypothesis on how the gully formed is that debris flowed downslope from an alcove and eroded a new channel. Though it looks water-carved, the gully is much more likely to have been formed when carbon dioxide frost accumulated on the slope and grew heavy enough to avalanche down and drag material down with it.

Because the pair of images, taken by the orbiting HiRISE camera onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, were taken more than a year apart, scientists don’t know in exactly which season the new gully formed. Similar activity has been seen to occur during the Martian winter at temperatures too cold for water, which is why researchers think carbon dioxide is a likelier cause. While the formation of these gullies on Mars is well documented, scientists have yet to work out exactly how they work.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2014/03/mars-gully-not-water/

[Stargazer09]

1. I'm no expert

But it looks like the gully is there in the first picture, possibly frosted over or filled with loose sedimentary material.

Very interesting!

[CFLDem]

3. I'm no expert either

but I'm 100% sure you're correct.

[proReality]

6. I'm not an expert, but I was a cartographer

The angle and lighting are different, but the groove looks much deeper than before (it was obviously there before), and it doesn't seem like the angle is far enough off to account for such a deep appearance now. Some debris may have somehow shaken out. Has anyone ever ruled out earthquakes on Mars?

[Stargazer09]

7. Supposedly,

Mars has the capability for earthquakes (marsquakes?), so it's possible that something happened to open the chasm.

I had previously read that Mars was geologically boring under the surface, but maybe that's changing:
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-scientist-discovers-plate-237303.aspx

[proReality]

10. Thanks for the article! n/t

[smitty]

2. I'm not a geologist

so I cannot comment with any authority. The only thing I note is that the picture on right appears to be in sharper focus with slightly different lighting.

[ffr]

4. Large ground moles?

[grahamhgreen]

5. Typical sandworm path!

[rocktivity]

8. The lost Malaysian plane!

rocktivity

[nikto]

9. The channel was clooged with debris...

Then well-paid work crews cleared it out.


Union Labor on Mars.

[Bucky]

11. I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure Graboids did this

They're hell on the terrain