- Original Caption Released with Image:
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Chasma Boreale is a large valley the cuts into Mars' north polar cap and
layered materials. At the uppermost portion of this valley (84.9 degrees
north, 356.6 degrees west), its head is marked by a kilometer-high
(3,000-foot-high) escarpment that allows seeing the subsurface layering
and how the layers extend to nearby sloping surfaces that also cut into
the materials. The floor of Chasma Boreale is a cratered plain that has
sand on it. In part the sand appears to be eroding out of the escarpment.
This image by the Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was
taken in support of observations by two of the orbiter's other instruments
-- the orbiter's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars and
the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment -- presented at an Oct. 16,
2006 news briefing. Further details can be found at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/.
- Image Credit:
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NASA/JPL/MSSS
Image Addition Date:
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2006-10-16
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