Avalanche on Mars

Alex


Photo: NASA

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter space probe took a snapshot of this avalanche on the Red Planet's north pole

The image shows tan clouds billowing away from the foot of a towering slope, where ice and dust have just cascaded down. [...]

Ingrid Daubar Spitale of the University of Arizona, Tucson, who works on targeting the camera and has studied hundreds of HiRISE images, was the first person to notice the avalanches. "It really surprised me," she said. "It's great to see something so dynamic on Mars. A lot of what we see there hasn't changed for millions of years."

Because she was the first person who noticed them, these avalanches are now called "Ingrid's Avalanches": Link


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(NH4)2Cr2O7 is Ammonium dichromate which is sometimes called "Vesuvian Fire" as it was commonly used to simulate a volcanic eruption. I remember building ing a plaster of paris volcano model and making it erupt in my 6th grade class (circa 1967--yeah, I'm old)
The other compound is Mercury(II) thiocyanate (Hg(SCN)2) AKA "Pharoah's Serpent" It used to be used in fireworks because of its black-snake effect. However, it isn't readily available anymore because it is toxic.
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