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Riled Up is a journal of science, the environment, exploration, new technology, and related commentary.  Contributors include scientists, explorers, engineers, and others who provide perspectives and context not typically offered in general news circulation.  For interested readers, additional resources are included.

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Comparing Earth and Mars Geology

Using continuous imagery being acquired from Mars, striking geologic comparisons between Martian and Earth landscapes are now possible.

NASA has demonstrated this by comparing pairs of remote sensing images of features on both planet. One pair of photos clearly show rock structures thrusting from the flat, dry, landscapes of northwestern New Mexico and a wide Martian plain. Protruding from the New Mexican desert is the extinct, volcanic spire of Shiprock, a lava 'plug' that hardened in place and the volcanic sides eroded away. It was compared to a Martian desert landscape photographed by an orbiting satellite, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and its HiRise camera. Early volcanic activity on Mars created similar razor-like, shapes visible as virtical, triangular walls similar those seen in New Mexico.

 

    Volcanic Geology, Mars, 4-9-2010 (credit: JPL MRO) & Shiprock, New Mexico, 4-12-2017 (credit: Landsat-8)

Further imagery and research will add more understanding of how similar and for how long have such processes been underway on Mars. Those studies may also indicate if such processes are still a geological "work in progress" changing those red landscapes.

WHB

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