Recent Liquid Flow on Mars

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Recent liquid flow on Mars?

Photographs of Hebes Chasma were recently published[1] which show considerable resemblance to liquid flow features. The dark stains seem to show something that "pool[ed] like spilt ink". Commentator(s) bent over backwards trying to not seem to be guilty of sensationalism. The stains were suggested to be probably dust movement that produced a "flow-like feature". There is a possibility that wind can become heavily laden with dust and flow downwards to leave the dust collected in a broad flat pool, but the images in this case make that explanation seem unlikely. The possibility of a petroleum seep suggests itself but the flow pattern that would result in the actual images is hard to imagine. Perhaps some unknown dense gas of volcanic origin collected in Hebes Chasma and then condensed as dew on the surfaces that cooled the most by radiation. This dew then slowly drained from those surfaces into inky pools in deep depressions in the eastern and central parts of Hebes Chasma. If there is a liquid on Mars of petroleum nature, it could be an advantage for colonization efforts some day.

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