This enhanced-color image from the High Resolution Imaging Science
Experiment Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a landscape
of sand dunes and buttes among a background of light-toned (tan-colored)
bands and dark-toned (blue-colored) bands in the Candor Chasma region of
Mars' Valles Marineris canyon system.
The scene includes examples of thin dark lines bordered by light-toned
bedrock [Figures 2A, 2B, and 2C]. The dark lines are interpreted as fractures,
called joints, that were formerly underground but have been exposed at the
surface by erosion of overlying material. The light-toned material along
the joints is interpreted as features called halos, resulting from mineral
alteration (bleaching, cementation or both) of the walls of the fractures
by fluid moving through the fractures.
The image was acquired on Sept. 30, 2006, during winter in Mars' southern
hemisphere, at a local Mars time of 3:29 p.m. It combines separate band
passes taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment in
blue-green light, red light and near-infrared light.
The scene is illuminated from the west (left) with a solar incidence angle
of 58.5 degrees. The image scale is 26 centimeters (10 inches) per pixel,
the scale of the red bandpass image. The other bandpasses were acquired
with two-by-two pixel binning to 52 centimeters (20 inches) per pixel.
The image, in the camera's catalogue as TRA_000836_1740, is centered at
5.7 degrees south latitude, 284.6 degrees east longitude. A locator map
[Supplement 2] based on elevation data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter
on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor indicates this location in the context of
the Candor Chasma region. A full resolution file of this image is
available for download by clicking here (82 MB).
A subframe of the full image [Figure 1] shows the locations of smaller
pull-outs selected for showing details of interest.
Supplement 3 shows light-toned and dark-toned layers. Meter-scale dune forms
are commonly observed within the dark layers. Also shown are joints and
surrounding halos. In contrast to Figure 2, the halos along these joints
are laterally more extensive and less localized along the trace of the
joint.
Supplement 4 shows two streamlined mesas of layered bedrock. The windward
slopes of these mesas appear smooth, consistent with wind erosion.
Boulders are common along the northwest slopes of the mesas. The
horizontal spacing of joints appears to control the lateral dimensions of
many of the largest boulders.
Supplement 5 shows a high-density population of joints.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space
Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the
spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by
the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball
Aerospace and Technology Corp., Boulder, Colo.