What is this on Mars??

[Mr Martian]

Firstly, I am truly sorry if this thread has been started in the wrong place, I really didn't know where to put it.

I am wondering what this feature is on Mars. It looks like a volcano, and is located just SSW of Lau Crater at the South polar erea, the coordinates are: 76°S 111°W

I looked on Google Mars and NASA website but I can't find any info on the feature. If anyone knows anything, I would appreciate some info

 

[4throck]

The feature is this:
http://global-data.mars.asu.edu/bin/hrsc.pl?res=32&clat=0.000000&clon=248.000000&ids=H6707_0000_ND3&day_night=2&rel=0

Looks like a crater dissected/eroded by ice. Didn't find any name for it.

 

[Matias Saibene]

At first when I saw the picture I thought it was an impact crater, but after 4throck information, I think it's a volcano. The object of the center of crater, may be a layer of solidified lava.

 

[4throck]

Still convinced it's an ordinary martian crater, eroded by ice and catastrophic floods. The deposit is ash/sand, perhaps sand dunes.
Nothing out of the ordinary. Geological processes do things like that.

 

[Donamy]

It's an ant hill from the movie, "Them".

 

[Mr Martian]

To me it definitely looks like some kind of volcanism. If you look at the sides, the are raised up, similar to the sides of Olympus mons. Also, if it was just an eroded crater, why are nearby craters similarly effected??

 

[Aeadar]

I think I have to agree with 4throck. In those nearby craters with a similar appearance (those with higher-resolution imagery anyway), the dark interiors seem to resolve into dune-fields of darker material; Smith Crater, to the north of Lau, for example.

You are right though in that the escarpment around the crater looks very, 'Olympus Mons-like'.

In any event, if Donamy is right (and I'm secretly hoping he is), we're going to need a very large, orbiting magnifying glass!:lol:

 

[RGClark]

At first when I saw the picture I thought it was an impact crater, but after 4throck information, I think it's a volcano. The object of the center of crater, may be a layer of solidified lava.

Any images from MRO at highest resolution?

Bob Clark

 

[Matias Saibene]

I returned to see the image of the crater / volcano, and is really interesting.

I also saw that most craters near Lau have presented a similar way, including the a dark spot near one of the edges of the "crater".
Returning to the crater of topic I approached and I saw that its relief is similar to a "impact crater inside a volcano" something strange to me (I can be wrong).
I also went to the dark spots of the other craters and I've seen that have a line in the middle of the spot.

My opinion is that there must be some kind of volcano and dark spots can be some kind of solidified lava.

An interesting question is whether the reliefs featuring Google Mars are real.

Adjunct images. I'll try to find better images.

 

[N_Molson]

Easy. It is the fossil of the jet vent of a Giant Martian Whale that got trapped when the oceans evaporated.

 

[Matias Saibene]

Easy. It is the fossil of the jet vent of a Giant Martian Whale that got trapped when the oceans evaporated.

 

[4throck]

Here's a nice highres view of the crater from HRSC:
http://viewer.mars.asu.edu/planetview/inst/hrsc/H6707_0000_ND3#start
You have a frost deposit at the middle of the crater that would make the "aliens did it" go crazy!


Since you are really interested in understanding martian landforms, I'd suggest reading things like:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedestal_crater

Specially try to understand this image, it explains what you see:

There nothing out of the ordinary here. Mars terrain is well understood.

And yes, Google Mars terrain is derived from real data with good resolution.