Are there Trees on Mars?
Plant Life? Animal Life? Or Both?
Take a look at some of these images from Mars' south pole.
Do they resemble vegetation seen from a high altitude?
The image above is cropped from m0804688a, found on the PDS
m0804688a Browse Page.
PDS does not give a discription of this image -
just the word
sample.
full image of
section m0804688a
The lower portion of this image is packed with what looks to some like Martian
vegetation.
But is it?
For a very interesting report about the notion that there might be
seasonal vegetation on Mars
please see the article,
Views on the Martian Polar Spring at
The Electric Warrior.
The author covers a lot of subjects relative to life in any environment
and makes an interesting case for vegetation on Mars.
As a geologist, I see in these images the geomorphology.
It is there, regardless of vegetation or animal life.
As a seeker/believer of/in life on other planets, my mind and imagination
are wide open to all the possibilities, however fantastic they may be.
Here is another image
from the MOC Image m0804874
PDS Browse Page.
The above is cropped from the center of the
full resolution jpeg image.
I chose this section because of the lighter areas that separate the darker dendritic
tree-like areas. It has the look of higher and lower elevations. This image looks more
close up - it is a different resolution than m0804688. (see the article at The Electric Warrior site)
The images can easily be
compared to geologic features on Earth. The branching patterns
resemble dendritic and radial drainage patterns more than they do trees.
On Earth such drainage patterns are most often present where the land is thick with
vegetation.
Dendritic and radial drainage patterns
Drawings of dendritic and radial terrain
Drainage patterns vary according to the structure of the terrain and the
kinds of rock the streams flow through. The word, dendritic means tree-like. Dendritic
stream patterns are the most common. Dendritic patterns form on homogeneous rock, where
resistance to erosion is fairly uniform. It is the slope of the land, not the rocks,
that mainly determines where and how channels form - usually random branching, at various
angles like the branches of a tree. In contrast, if the land has a lot of joints or faults
(or both) the streams will flow through these more easily eroded openings and produce a
sort of rectangular pattern with many right angle bends.
Radial drainage patterns form on domal structures like volcanic cones, or any
dome or cone shaped landform. The channels radiate out and flow down all around the
structure. This drainage pattern forms on newly made landforms such as volcanoes. Is it
possible that radial drainage patterns form as the warm spring weather melts the icy hills
of Mars' South Pole? I think it is - if there are hills there.
Compare this image cropped from
m0804580 Browse Page.
(titled
Terrain immediately south of Mars Polar Lander primary ellipse)
And this one cropped from
m08195 Browse Page.
(also titled
Terrain immediately south of Mars Polar Lander primary ellipse)
to this Earth image of the Loess Plateau in Shanxi Province, China.
from Geomorphology from Space
Is there any resemblance to any of the shapes in the Mars images?
Bear in mind the differences in cameras, pixels, light and shadow, etc., etc.
And, most importantly, there is some vegetation in the Earth image.
See more images and information about the Shanxi Province at
Geomprphology from Space.
You can read about fluvial landforms and drainage systems at
FLUVIAL LANDFORMS at the Geomorphology from Space web site.
You may see the resemblance to some of these Martian landscapes - some, not all.
Image below - also from the m0804580 images
Is there some form of vegetation on Mars?
Are these Martian trees?
Before I get into enhanced 3D images and some examples of living, growing - and spreading - things,
there is another geological possibility.
Star Dunes
A dune is a mound or ridge of sand deposited by wind. But a dune could be
composed of windblown snow as well. Wind carries a sediment load much the same as a
stream. Like a stream, its competence depends on particle size and the energy involved. Near the ground
wind velocity varies, according to the character of the surface. Irregularities and
obstacles like small projections and outcrops, or clumps of vegetation disrupt the
flow of air and slow it down. Wind moves over and around an object, such as a rock,
creating a shadow - or pocket - of less energetic air in front of and behind the object.
Where the wind looses competence sand falls out of suspension and forms mounds.
Mounds grow into dunes as sand accumulates. Vegetation, surface features, the
amount of available sand, and of course wind action, determine dune patterns. Some of the
features seen in the south polar regions of Mars resemble star dunes.
Star dunes are hills of sand having a radial structure that kind of resembles a
star-like pattern. That is they have three or more arms (or ridges) that extend out from
the high central part of the dune. Star dunes are also pyramidal. Unlike other dunes,
Stars do not travel laterally. They form in areas where the wind blows from all directions.
This keeps them pretty much in one place. They grow upward in peaks as the wind deposits
sand all around them. Such enduring structures are capable of supporting vegetation - should
it happen to migrate along with the windblown sand.
Really Cool Star Dunes
USGS Article - Types of Dunes
Click for larger image
Compound star dunes of Algeria from
PLATE E-3 ERG CHECH AND YETTI EGLAB MASSIF, Geomorphology from Space
Star dunes do not always show up so clearly defined.
Dune formations can be a complex mix of many patterns.
Stars often form within the shelter of linear dunes.
Compound dunes are made of two or more types of dune structures.
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Various Images of Star Dunes from Algeria -- Click for larger image
probably the Grand Erg Oriental
Images from NASA, Shuttle Missions, in league with all the others - USGS, etc., et al
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Compound crescentic dunes, and star dunes
the Rub´al Khali, the Empty Quarter of southern Saudi Arabia.
I put these images here to illustrate the photographic strangeness of dunes.
DUNES OF THE EMPTY QUARTER from Geomorphology from Space
Star Dunes?
from m0804580, segment b
Dunes?
from m0804580, bottom
Star Dunes?
from m0804874, segment b
Is the landscape of the Martian southern hemisphere decorated with star dunes,
or fields of compound dunes made of snow? Maybe there are some remnants of volcanoes or
cinder cones mixed in with the dunes - their icy slopes creating strange patterns as their
radial drainage systems thaw. Are there other glacial features, such as
arêtes, horns,
nunataks, or worn down cirques playing tricks in the sublimating Martian snow?
Page Two
-- Image Credits --
Mars Global Surveyor MOC Images -PDS Images
Planetary Image Atlas
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