May 01,
2007
Victoria Crater on Mars
Sharply scalloped walls,
together with cleanly cut ridges and valleys on its floor,
make Mars’ Victoria crater an ideal test of the electric
discharge model of crater formation.
The image above was taken by the High Resolution Imaging
Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It
shows “Victoria crater,” whose features can only deepen the
growing mysteries of cratering patterns on Mars. It
certainly does not look anything like the effect of an
impact event, but that is the interpretation given it by
NASA. The NASA release, though referring to “a distinctive
scalloped shape to its rim,” can only explain this
remarkable configuration in terms of “erosion and downhill
movement of crater wall material.”
But look at the high-resolution image
here. The required debris along the base of the cliffs
is simply not there. Direct observation suggests that the
sharply scalloped walls are a pristine record of the
original causative event.
When questions of theory and interpretation arise, the most
compelling answer will be the one that is based on
observational fact and can account for essential features
left unexplained by alternatives. Electric Universe
proponent Wallace Thornhill has recently examined NASA’s
reports on Victoria crater. His analysis is based on
practical laboratory experiments with electrical discharge,
particularly the effects of an electric arc on a positively
charged surface – the “anode” in a discharge event.
Thornhill states, “Victoria crater appears to be a
short-duration anode scar, or ‘spark’ crater, where melting
is insignificant. In laboratory experiments it is found that
the anode spark scar on a ‘contaminated’ surface develops
many arc ‘spots’ at the center of a roughly circular scar.
In a very short time the central arc spots move out to form
a ring. The spots enlarge and join into a ring. For a time
the entire arc current passes through the annular ring. If
it were to continue, melting would occur, obliterating the
fine scalloped structure of the crater wall. In experiments
there may be a hundred or more spots.” See Thornhill’s
discussion of Victoria crater
here, in particular his illustration of the migrating
arc spots from a congregation in the center to a ring. His
conclusion: “The scalloped crater wall is simply the erosion
signature of the irregular ring of enlarged anode spots.”
And what of the remarkable “ridge and valley” complexes in
the center of the crater? According to NASA, this feature is
explained as “sand dunes,” supposedly formed by winds in an
atmosphere less than one percent as dense as Earth’s. It’s
easy to understand why most planetary scientists accept this
default interpretation: what else could they be? But as we
intend to show in forthcoming installments in this series,
almost all of the “sand dune” interpretations of Martian
geology are “blown away” when subjected to closer
examination.