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Volume 13: Number 3: Article 2
Mound Configurations on the Martian Cydonia Plain
Horace W. Crater, The University of Tennessee Space Institute, B.
H. Goethert Parkway, Tullahoma, TN 37388-8897
Stanley V. McDaniel, Sonoma State University, 1055 W. College
Ave #273, Santa Rosa, CA 95401
We show that a group of mound-like formations in the Cydonia area of
Mars of relatively small and nearly uniform size have relative positions
that repeatedly display symmetries in the apparent form of related right
and isosceles triangles. We also show that these pairs cluster sharply
in density about a certain value of the defining angle of those related
triangles and that on average the vertices of the triangles lie significantly
closer to the measured centers of the mounds than those for fictitious
mounds from a computer simulation. Our computer simulation of the surrounding
features and the mound formations themselves demonstrates that the numerous
examples of these symmetries, the resultant clustering about certain
proportions, and the relative precision of the vertices to the mound
centers are not compatible with random geological forces. We have thus
uncovered an anomaly of number, geometry, and precision. In order to
give a quantitative measure of this anomalous distribution of mounds
we determine the likelihood that we will make an error by rejecting
the null hypothesis. This level of significance we find for our test
is p~15.5 × 10-6 . That is, in a million trials, the
repetition of the frequency of appearance of these triangles, greater
than or equal to the observed (19) in the actual data, and with the
observed or greater precision, is about 15 ± 2.5. In this computer
simulation the average number of appearances is about 6, with a standard
deviation of about 2. In 95% of the computer simulations, the distance
of the vertices of the triangles was, on average, further from the (fictitious)
mound centers than for the case of the actual mounds.
Keywords: Mars, Cydonia, mounds
FULL TEXT:
Mound Configurations on the Martian Cydonia Plain
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