This is unbelievably cool! http://www.universetoday.com/2008/0...stunning-images-of-mars-avalanches-in-action/
Can anyone explain how an avalanche just happens? Usually some snow or large boulders start tumbling down a hill, but something has to move it. What exactly could have happened to cause it? I call alien activity! Wonder if something was trying to crush a Rover. *Cue Transformers trailer
Awesome that it was caught mid event! Casual scanning of the article came across 5 bullet points. Disappearance of carbon dioxide frost, dislodging rocks. Expansion and contraction of ice due to seasonal temperature differences. Small Mars-quakes. A nearby meteorite impact. Vibrations from other avalanches causing other avalanches along the scarp *cue the more you know rainbow*
Amazing pictures, makes you wonder. Will this experiment actually prove anything or raise more question than provide answers? And I came in here expecting a huge lorry load of chocolate falling of a lorry!
Mars gets me thinking too much. Wish they'd just crack the planet open and see what's inside Probably just a bunch of nougat
I hate to be a Party Pooper, but I don't really see the big deal. We already know ice expands and contracts over the seasons on Mars, it's only logical that avalanches would happen every so often. I guess everyone's just so excited that something actually MOVED on Mars besides the wind...
If you really hated to be a party pooper, you wouldn't poop on parties. Yes, it's logical that avalanches happen every so often on Mars, and there's sure enough evidence for them, but firstly, this gives areologists a chance to study the immediate aftereffects, and secondly, it's more visceral when you can see it happening (or just barely missed it). It's like how everyone went bananas over Shoemaker-Levy 9. We know that, logically, great big rocks smack into the moons and planets every so often. There's impact craters scattered all over the solar system, even here. It's a whole different order of coolness to get visual confirmation of that, as it's happening. (Btw: geologist: studier of Earth areologist: studier of Mars oreologist: studier of dunking-in-milk areolagist: I'll tell you when you're older)
