This is an image within Semeykin Crater, which is located in the Martian northern hemisphere. This location is at the edge of the planetary dichotomy, a boundary between the heavily cratered and older southern highlands and the lightly cratered northern lowlands. This boundary is marked by remnants, or "islands," of highland terrain standing out within the northern lowlands. It is uncertain how this dichotomy formed, but the interior of this crater has been resurfaced with the smoother, younger terrain. Much of the older remnants appear softened. This may be due to past or present subsurface ice that can deform the terrain. Dark sand is also visible in the right hand side of the image.

Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.