PIA04288: Inverted Valley
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows an inverted valley in eastern Arabia Terra on Mars. The relatively flat-topped ridge was once the floor, or a material covering the floor, of an ancient martian valley.
 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 2327 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems 
 Producer ID:  MOC2-1210  
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA04288.tif (1.566 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA04288.jpg (224.5 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:

10 September 2005
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an inverted valley in eastern Arabia Terra. The relatively flat-topped ridge that runs down much of the length of this picture was once the floor, or a material covering the floor, of an ancient martian valley. The floor material was harder and more resistant to erosion than the rocks into which the valley had been cut. Thus, erosion removed the rocks that were cut by the valley, and then removed additional rocks that were lower than the valley floor, leaving what was once a valley as a high-standing ridge.

Location near: 11.4°N, 312.9°W
Image width: width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi)
Illumination from: lower left
Season: Northern Autumn

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Image Addition Date:
2005-09-10