[Nmcaver] Mars pit

[John Lyles]

> NASA?s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera has a new photo of 
> one of the pits on Mars:

IMPRESSIVE PIT.
 
> This confirms that this pit is essentially a vertical shaft cut through 
> the lava flows on the flank of the volcano. Such pits form on similar 
> volcanoes in Hawaii and are called "pit craters." They generally do not 
> connect to long open caverns but are the result of deep underground 
> collapse. From the shadow of the rim cast onto the wall of the pit we 
> can calculate that the pit is at least 78 meters (255 feet) deep. The 
> pit is 150 x 157 meters (492 x 515 feet) across.

That confirmation seems to be based on mankinds experience of pit craters on terrestrial volcanoes. This is Mars, so all bets are off. I bet there is a big long cave under there. Wait until they see a Sandworm peeking out of that huge shaft!!

jtml