Released 21 July 2003

Located not far south of Olympus Mons, these mesas show interesting erosional patterns. Some of their slopes, particularly those on the eastern-facing sides, show a debris with a blocky and somewhat etched appearance. In the bottom half of the image, where the mesas become more common, small bright bedforms snake between the mesas. Perhaps they are formed from locally-derived materials eroding off the mesa slopes.

Image information: VIS instrument. Latitude 9.3, Longitude 227.1 East (132.9 West). 19 meter/pixel resolution.

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.