PDS logoPlanetary Data System
PDS Information
Find a Node - Use these links to navigate to any of the 8 publicly accessible PDS Nodes.

This bar indicates that you are within the PDS enterprise which includes 6 science discipline nodes and 2 support nodes which are overseen by the Project Management Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Each node is led by an expert in the subject discipline, supported by an advisory group of other practitioners of that discipline, and subject to selection and approval under a regular NASA Research Announcement.
Click here to return to the Photojournal Home Page Click here to view a list of Photojournal Image Galleries Photojournal_inner_header
Latest Images  |  Spacecraft & Technology  |  Animations  |  Space Images App  |  Feedback  |  Photojournal Search  

PIA04550: Exhuming Platy Plains
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows Cerberus and the Elysium volcanoes on Mars have a platy, textured surface thought to have formed by floods of thick mud or, more likely, very fluid lava.
 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:  540 x 810 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Malin Space Science Systems 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA04550.tif (438.1 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA04550.jpg (118.3 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:

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-377, 31 May 2003

The vast plains of Mars located south of Cerberus and the Elysium volcanoes have a platy, textured surface thought to have formed by floods of thick mud or, more likely, very fluid lava. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows that the platy plain--which is the darker surface covering most of the northern two-thirds of this picture--is being exhumed from beneath a brighter material. The small ridges in the bright material are yardangs, a landform created by wind erosion. Wind is slowly eroding the bright material away, revealing the darker, platy surface below. This area is located near 4.3°N, 208.5°W. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left/lower left.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Image Addition Date:
2003-06-02