On Face Mountain, Cydonia Region, Mars
A Tribute to Heroes The Space Shuttle Columbia. Why We Fly
Congratulations to NASA for the successful landing at Gusev Crater! Love those pictures.
But why are they constantly sending probes, at the cost of millions of dollars each. to every place EXCEPT the neighborhood around Face Mountain? I sent an e-mail to marsoutreach@jpl.nasa.gov on January 6, 2004.
As for Face Mountain and its neighborhood you can go to
mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/msss/camera/images/01_31_01_releases/cydonia/ or this Malin Space Systems webpage and download Photo M18-00606. This was taken on August 10, 2000. Look at the Slag Pile. Look at the ground immediately to the east of the Slag Pile. We better find out what that is.
Another good commentary on Photo M18-00606 is at Bob Wonderland's Cliff Page Bob Wonderland Cydonia Quest website.
Mars Surveyor Photo M0400291 as displayed at the Enterprise Mission website. Something reflected the Sun the way acrylic or glass would!
Keith Laney's collection of Face Mountain images. Keith Laney's website.
In the November 1986 issue of Analog magazine is an article written by Richard C. Hoagland titled:
The Curious Case of the Humanoid Face . . . on Mars.
Those of you who are familiar with my novel Neanderthal Return, can see how this article would plant one of the seeds in my head for part of the story line.
Hoagland based his article on the now famous Viking 1 photograph 35A72, taken on July 25, 1976. Another Viking 1 photo, 70A13, taken on August 30, 1976, also covers the Face Mountain area in Cydonia. Both of these shots were during the late afternoon on the surface, when the Sun was to the west. In 35A72, the Sun was about 10 degrees above the horizon 24 degrees north of due West. In 70A13, the Sun was about 27 degrees above the horizon and 7 degrees north of due West.
That is about right, for those who are familiar with the way the Sun moves. Mars rotates the same way as Earth. Like Earth, its axis is tilted, causing the phenomenon of seasons. We designate "North" on Mars to be toward the star Polaris, regardless of any local magnetism. The poles, the equator, and the latitudes are defined by the rotation. Longitude is based on an arbitrary reference point, a small crater named Airy-0. The Sun will rise and set north of the east-west line during the summer, and south of that line during the winter.
Face Mountain is located at Latitude 41 degrees North, with the 41st Parallel touching the base of the cliff on the north side. Its longitude is about 9 degrees 30 minutes west of the Prime Meridian of Airy-0. The Cydonia region is northeast of the Chryse Plain where the Viking 2 landed, and north of the Arabia Torra. Cydonia's elevation is about 7,000 feet below an arbitrary Zero Datum we have set for Mars. Mars is a bit pear shaped, the Southern Hemisphere is mostly above the Zero Datum and the Northern Hemisphere is mostly below the Zero Datum. If Mars ever had an ocean, it would have been located in its Northern Hemisphere. Extreme elevations are more common on Mars than on Earth. 5,000 to 10,000 feet above and below the Zero Datum are not unusual.
In both Viking photos, the Sun is to the west. In the April 4, 1998 Global Surveyor photo, the Sun is to the east, casting a different set of shadows on the butte. NASA has used this photo to scream: "See! It is just a wind blown butte! Now quit chasing rainbows so we can get back to serious science!"
Such as determining that some rocks on Mars are made of quartz.
Granted, the mission of mapping the entire surface of Mars and measuring its topography is useful, if we ever go there. But notice how they don't publish any new photographs of Face Mountain when the Sun is to the west? Actually they have. There is a May 24, 2001 photo of Face Mountain on the NASA-JPL Website with the Sun to the west. It starts to look like a face again. The THEMIS Image taken in April 2002 with the Sun to the West, but not as late in the afternoon as the Viking photos, shows a shadow pattern that looks like a face.
The January 31, 2001 release of Cydonia photos include a strip shot that cuts across the west half of Face Mountain, including the West Eye Socket. You see the west end of the Mouth Chasm.
Might I suggest an experiment: Upon careful study of these photos, the two from 1976, the one from 1998, two from 2001, and the THEMIS image of 2002, make a three dimensional model of Face Mountain. Place in a film studio with the room completely dark. Turn on one light bulb to represent the Sun. If the light bulb is located "west" of model as the Sun was located relative to Face Mountain during those two afternoons in 1976, and again in 2001 and 2002, it will look like a face. If the light bulb is located east of the model, as was the Sun in 1998, it will not.
HiRise Online Image PSP_003234_2210 of Face Mountain, intermediate size image. Full size image. Sun to the east of the mesa. I would prefer quarter and half mile scale bars to this 500 meter bar. One would think people other than Americans are paying the taxes to support NASA and the University of Arizona!
Still, in the 1998 photo, you can see the Mouth Chasm. You can see the big hole, the West Eye Socket, immediately west of the Nose Ridge that would look like an eye socket in the afternoon. And you can see the Helmet Cliff that surrounds the outside of the butte. It is just that east of the Nose Ridge, it does not look like a face.
Maybe that is what the folks who carved it looked like.
"Whoa! Whoa! Easy guys. I'm going! Come on, take it easy! Damn security guards."
You know that is the reaction in some quarters to any suggestion that Face Mountain was carved. But it is possible to carve a sculpture to look like a face when lit from one side and to not look like a face when lit from the other side. In the 1976, 2001, and 2002 photos, the way the shadows were cast by the Nose Ridge looked like a second eye socket. This effect is not present in the 1998 photo.
There are two possibilities:
1) Face Mountain is just a wind blown butte.
2) Face Mountain was carved.
The Sphinx and Mount Rushmore were carved. After a few thousand years the Sphinx is a bit beat up from the elements, what with its nose busted off and all. After only a few decades, Lincoln's face shows the effects of wind and rain. When Face Mountain was carved, if it was carved, those who carved it might have been keeping pet trilobites from Earth in aquariums. The sculpture is bound to look a bit eroded after a few hundred million years.
If Face Mountain was carved, a logical question is why?
One reason is to serve as a marker. Millions of years ago, your ancestors visited this little red rock orbiting a standard sized yellow star. They did something there. You have been placed in command of a starship and ordered to go there and find out what they did, or to retrieve something they left. Oh, and by the way, watch out for that other planet, the bigger one with the oceans. We've been getting a lot of radio signals from that planet. Something killed the dinosaurs there and the rats evolved into all kinds of animals, including a kind of ape with a brain big enough to figure out how to transmit radio signals. Stay away from the radio planet. They might shoot at you if you get too close.
You arrive in orbit around Mars, careful to steer clear of Earth. Now what is it we're looking for? For a little red rock, there sure is a lot of surface to scan when we get close. 55.5 million square miles to be exact. A bit less than the 197 million square miles of Earth, but without oceans, it is quite a bit of real estate to search. It says here to look at the planet where the Sun is toward the west. Why does it say that? "Hey captain! Look, there it is! The Face." Well I'll be darned, it still looks like a Face in the setting Sun after all of these millions of years. Okay. Draw a line through the apparent center axis of the face image. It is angled a bit counterclockwise to the axis of the Nose Ridge, but that was on purpose. They carved it, you see. The orientation of the butte is rotated counterclockwise from the north-south meridian. At right angles to the apparent face center axis, draw another line. In one direction it leads to this useless collection of pyramidal hills. But in the other direction, at about 12 miles, it leads straight to the Slag Pile.
Betcha that was quicker and easier than you thought it would be. Now if only the rest of this mission would go so smoothly.
Kind of like the treasure map that directs you to go 56 Spanish varas NNE of the cave mouth as reckoned with a magnetic compass. If you can locate the cave mouth and account for the movement of the North Magnetic Pole since the time the map was drawn, you can measure out the 56 Spanish varas and find the location the map directs you to. Whether the treasure is still there, well that might be another story.
After all, them darn Earthlings might beat you to the Slag Pile! Or is it a Runway?
Slag Pile? Runway? What Slag Pile? Nobody has said anything about a Slag Pile or Runway! What's he talking about? That Knight guy, first he comes up with the Antipeonage Act, and now this!
Well, just like the Antipeonage Act is a real statute, the Slag Pile, or Runway, is a real physical element on the surface of Mars. 12 miles NEE from Face Mountain. On TOP of the mudflow from the nearby crater.
Oh-oh. Now how does a ridge form on TOP of a mudflow? If the ridge was there when the asteroid hit to create the crater, the mudflow would have been diverted AROUND the ridge. We don't see that in Viking I photo 70A13. We don't see the Slag Pile at all in 35A72, but 70A13 covers the territory that includes the Slag Pile. Whatever natural force that would create a ridge would affect the shape of the mudflow. Which did not seem to happen either.
Hmm.
Now that is interesting. I call it a Slag Pile because the one way such a feature is formed is somebody digging a hole in the ground and piling up the dirt on the surface nearby. Many a mine has a slag pile. That which is coal is sold, that which is not coal is dumped into a slag pile. But upon further study of this feature, I find that it could be a Runway. See below.
The Slag Pile on Mars is two miles long and half of a mile wide. If somebody dug dirt, somebody dug a lot of dirt! And guess what Richard Hoagland wrote about in his article in 1986 in Analog? On pages 72 and 73 of the November 1986 issue of Analog are Figures 8 and 9, portions of Photo 70A13 showing the crater with the Slag Pile and the relationship of this feature with Face Mountain and the group of pyramidal mountains called the "City". He refers to it as the "cliff", but I prefer to call it the Slag Pile.
Remember the January 31, 2001 release of Cydonia photos? Another strip shot in this release, Photo M18-00606, shows the Slag Pile and some of the surrounding mudflow from the nearby crater. This photo is well worth downloading onto your hard drive and viewing with Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. Look very carefully at what is in the Slag Pile and in the ground around the Slag Pile. Does it look to you like what it looks like to me? Does it remind you of the giant worm creatures in Frank Herbert's Dune stories? Are we looking at FOSSILS of native Martian wildlife killed by the asteroid impact? Was Face Mountain carved by those who came to study these fossils? You won't see these segmented structures in the other pictures from this release. Indeed, you won't see these segmented structures or hoops in the mudflows of other craters around the planet that the Mars Global surveyor has photographed. Remember, these are official NASA Photos from NASA's official website to which I point you!
I played with Photo M18-00606 and cut out some details around this most interesting feature.
North End of Slag Pile or Runway Middle Section of Slag Pile or Runway
When you look at these details from NASA Photo M18-00606 the first thing you will notice is the ruler straight feature on top of the odd shaped Slag Pile. (Remember, that is just what I am calling it, that may not be what it is.) If a concrete runway were built and then abandoned, exposed to the Martian winds and dust storms for thousands or even millions of years, would it not look like this? I am not making this up, I am just looking at a NASA Photo downloaded off of NASA's web site! The feature looks like it is slightly bent, and it may be, but if you line up a ruler, engineer's scale or other straight edge along this feature, you will find that it is remarkably straight for a feature that is on MARS!! Which is a most interesting place for a two mile long feature as straight as a ruler can be.
The winds in Cydonia apparently prevail from the south, because we see piles of dust and sand along the north edges of this feature and other features, including Face Mountain. This plateau on top of the impact crater outflow may not be a mere slag pile, because a slag pile, depending on what was being mined and therefore its properties, could blow away. But then again, the slag could be more like concrete than loose sand and dust. Which would make it ideal for a platform upon which to build a runway.
Along the east edge of the feature is an apparent trench with cracks that make one think of a dried lakebed. That may not be what it is, but that is what it looks like. Beyond the trench, to the north and east of the Slag Pile/Runway it appears the Martian winds have blown away some of the dirt to reveal something else.
But what is it that we are looking at? The curvy nature of these features might make one wonder if we are looking at the fossilized remains of giant worms. What would such worms eat? The best argument against the existence of the Loch Ness Monster is that there is just not enough food in the Loch to keep him alive. If they are worms, we would be seeing such fossils elsewhere on Mars. Are these the exposed structural elements of tunnels built by the sort of beings who could build spacecraft to travel to Mars? If such beings evolved on Mars, we would have been seeing considerably more evidence of their existence than this most interesting feature and a mountain that may have been carved to look like a face. Hoop structures are ideal for bracing the top of a tunnel, we use them all the time for our highway and railroad tunnels.
We just might be looking at the remains of a base built and abandoned by intelligent life forms who evolved somewhere else than Mars or Earth.
A Closer Look at the "Worms" Immediately East of the Slag Pile/Runway
I have tried such closer looks with other NASA Photos from Mars, I just do NOT see anything like this!
The naysayers at NASA and elsewhere have never explained or even discussed the Slag Pile or Runway.
If the folks who dug up the material and piled it up on the crater mudflow, perhaps even building a Runway, while studying these fossils, or building the base the remains of which we are seeing, noticed the shadow effect of the late afternoon Sun on Face Mountain, they might not have had to carve it. They might have had a ready made marker to guide them back to the location of their mine, underground city, laboratory, base, or settlement. If they carved Face Mountain, it would have been to create the shadow effect in the late afternoon Sun that would not be visible in the morning.
After a few million years of wind erosion, we would not notice it either unless we were lucky.
Which we were in 1976.
If we need a reason for a manned mission to Mars, this is it. President Bush has proposed that we work toward such a manned mission, if he would trim the federal bureaucracy, cease funding state agencies to usurp state sovereignty and control the states with the power of the federal purse, trim back on the foreign wars in which we find ourselves involved, staunch the outsourcing of our jobs and tax base to nations with cheap labor, and call off the Child Support Crusade and replace it with a family law scheme compatible with the Constitution, we might be able to afford it. I would appreciate the use of a little more of the existing resources to study not Face Mountain, but the Slag Pile to which Face Mountain points. But then, the NASA scientists would rather study every feature every where else on Mars that is not a carved image, a slag pile, an abandoned runway, or even fossils of giant Martian worms.