PIA03071: Exhuming Landforms
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows a crater and adjacent terrain that have been exhumed from beneath a wind-eroded material. The sharp, pointy ridges inside and immediately adjacent to the crater are evident.
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) 
 Spacecraft:  Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter
 Instrument:  Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) 
 Product Size:  672 x 1968 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems 
 Producer ID:  MOC2-1262  
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA03071.tif (1.324 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA03071.jpg (289.1 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

26 October 2005
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a crater and adjacent terrain that have been exhumed from beneath a wind-eroded material. The sharp, pointy ridges inside and immediately adjacent to the crater are the remains of a material that once covered the entire scene. Wind has stripped these materials away, forming yardangs. Inside the crater, the erosion has revealed an older, eroded layered material. This smooth-surfaced layered feature inside the crater was already eroded to nearly its present shape before the yardang-forming material was deposited (and then eroded away).

Location near: 7.2°N, 156.4°W
Image width: width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi)
Illumination from: lower left
Season: Northern Winter

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Image Addition Date:
2005-10-26