geologyandstuff

[geologyandstuff]

Pollywog Craters on Mars

This crater is approximately 2.3 kilometers across and is located in northern Arabia Terra near where the cratered highlands meets the northern lowlands (called a “dichotomy boundary”). Small craters with an exit channel, such as this one, are nicknamed “pollywog” craters, as they resemble tadpoles.

The channel is consistent with flow *out of* the crater, rather than flow *into* the crater, because 1) the valleys do not cut down to the level of the interior crater floor, and 2) there are no deposits of material on the floor associated with the mouth of the valley.

This small crater was probably once filled with an ice-covered lake that overflowed, forming the exit channel. Young craters with exit channels are intriguing because they record a relatively recent (during the Amazonian epoch) wet environment on Mars. 

ID: ESP_061768_2200 date: 30 September 2019  altitude: 298 km

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

[geologyandstuff]

SOL - 4394

Visualization: Vladimir Jankijevic

Credit: Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech - https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov

[geologyandstuff]

Igneous petrology field trip to São Paulo countryside part 2.

[geologyandstuff]

Check out these great micro-folds of quartz veins! These photos were taken in the Northwest Highlands Geopark in Scotland!

[geologyandstuff]

Low poly Thylacine says AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

i love you thylacine......................

[geologyandstuff]

I was gasping over all the pretty rocks in the Minerals Gallery 💎✨

Natural History Museum, London, V 2025

[geologyandstuff]

gneiss!!

[geologyandstuff]

Impact Melt Flows and Ponds

This image shows various crater-related features. Specifically, we see a raised mound in the middle, called a central uplift, and terraces (or ledges) on the crater wall. Within these locations are dark-toned deposits consistent with impact melt-bearing substances that behave as flows and ponded materials.

This Context Camera mosaic image shows a large 60-kilometer diameter crater named Mojave to the east of this HiRISE image. The impact melt-bearing material within the smaller crater likely originated from Mojave Crater. Therefore, we know that Mojave formed after this smaller crater.

As a result of the Mojave Crater impact, ejected material was transported to the smaller crater, some of which flowed around and some spilled inside and filled the topographic lows, such as on the terraces or the crater floor. Within the melt, we see evidence of “pitting.” Pitting comes from the release of volatile gases. These pits are commonly associated with and diagnostic of impact melt-bearing material on Mars and other rocky and ice-rich bodies in the Solar System.

ID: PSP_006993_1875 date: 23 January 2008 altitude: 278 km

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

[geologyandstuff]

okay, but hear me out, martian rocks — nakhlite edition.

to anyone who ever said rocks aren’t cool, you’re wrong.

[geologyandstuff]

please tell me other people will get this

[geologyandstuff]

Let’s head to the Museum’s Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals for today’s Exhibit of the Day! Pictured is a piece of malachite from the oxidized zone of a sulfide deposit. How did it get its dazzling green color? Gasses dissolved in rainwater percolated downward through the ore deposit, triggering a series of chemical reactions. This produced distinct zones of minerals: a rusty, metal-poor upper layer just above a colorful oxidized zone (where this specimen originates), and even deeper, a zone of enriched metal sulfide deposits. As water enriched in acids, metals, and oxygen descended, it reacted with existing minerals to form colorful oxide, sulfate, and carbonate minerals, like this one.

Photo: © AMNH

[geologyandstuff]

geology is cursing out the rock you just slid off of and badly bruised your ass on by its exact name

[geologyandstuff]

SOL - 4328

Visualization: Vladimir Jankijevic

Credit: Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech - https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov

[geologyandstuff]

Hypabyssal kimberlite from Limeira (Minas Gerais, Brasil) in thin section.

[geologyandstuff]

Question to the Ether:

How does one get into the field of icy worlds?

Anyone in this field, who is also on the Tumblr™️, looking for a prospective PhD student? Or a lab rat?…

Is it true what they say, do you really know of everyone in the world working in icy worlds?

[geologyandstuff]

Part of a Relict Channel

This public image suggestion via HiWish kept the rationale simple: “We wish to study the depression properties and mineralogical data to examine the stratigraphy of the walls.”. Osuga Valles is a complex set of channels located near Eos Chasma. The channels were likely cut by multiple episodes of flowing water.

ID: ESP_075947_1650 date: 9 October 2022 altitude: 261 km

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

[geologyandstuff]

IF NOT FOR EAT WHY CAKE?

IF NOT FOR MOUTH WHY HONEYCOMB?

IF NOT FOOD WHY LOOK LIKE FORBIDDEN SNACK?