Frozen waves of lava on Mars – Behind The Black – Robert Zimmerman

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken on January 15, 2023 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows an area where the ground suddenly transitions from a crazy quilt of criss-crossing hollows and ridgelines to a very flat and smooth plain.

….The rough criss-cross terrain meanwhile is also lava, but for some reason, likely related to the nearest fracture or fault structure to the north, was churned up as it hardened. The context camera image suggests that the flood lava at this point was falling into the fracture, like a waterfall, and as it did so it hardened.

If this hypothesis is right, then the surface here is simply the frozen waves on a river and waterfall of lava. If true, ain’t that neat?