Can the anomalous features seen on the Cydonia Plain on Mars be accounted for by natural geological processes, such as erosion and the action of Mar's former oceans and water? This is a key question in the resolution of the natural vs. artificial debate. Jim Erjavec is a geologist who specializes in mapping and computer graphics, has examined this question in detail, and developed a detailed geomorphologial feature map of Cydonia. His work is featured in the book, "The Case for the Face."

Here is Jim Erjavec's report for our website: "The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) has made three passes over the Cydonia Region of Mars, capturing new, high resolution images of the Face and an area near to "The City." Though analysis by SPSR (Society for Planetary SETI Research) scientists is still preliminary in nature, it appears that the new image of the Face is correlatable to features noted in the Viking images of the Face. Geologic analysis indicates that the "badlands" comparison quoted almost as soon as the Face Image was made available, may have been a premature statement. At the very least, the morphology of the Face as seen under high resolution conditions, indicates that the geologic influences on its formation were more complex than the differential erosion scenarios previously espoused by NASA.

Some of the features of the Face seem to suggest an ocean or lake environment as an influencing factor on its present form. In addition, some channels in the Face may be evidence of direct precipitation (rain)! If true, this might bring into question the view that Mars has had water only very early in its history and that the atmosphere was "stripped away" by some 3.8 billion years ago. With what has been gathered by the Viking, MGS and Pathfinder probes, the possibility that Mars held more than just single-cell life forms needs to be seriously considered.

It will be some time before the artificiality hypothesis has been disproven or proven. In the meantime, some anomalous features have been noted in the image which could not be seen previously, because of the lower resolution of the Viking data. Evaluations and analyses of the new images are in progress at this time."

We'll get more of Erjavec's geological analysis in our interview on May 30, 1998. His written report continues at the link below.

About Jim Erjavec
Geologist & Geographic Information System Specialist

B.S. in Geology, the Cleveland State University, 1979. M.S. in Economic Geology, the University of Arizona, 1981.

Worked in the petroleum industry as an exploration geologist from 1981-1987 and as a Computer Systems Analyst and Geographic Information System (GIS) Specialist from 1987-1991 with a system's vendor. Currently employed as an Environmental Geologist / GIS Specialist with a major engineering firm (since 1991).

15 years of work experience has included geologic mapping and stratigraphic interpretation and geochemistry. Explored for petroleum deposits in California and Alaska. Demonstrated and marketed Geographic Information System technologies as well as provided technical support for Unix workstations. Have applied GIS technologies and geologic expertise in the characterization and remediation of hazardous waste sites within the U.S.

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