30 April 2004
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a relatively young impact crater located in southeastern Arabia Terra near 4.8°N, 313.9°W. It is about 1 kilometer (about six tenths of a mile) in diameter, roughly the size of the famous Meteor Crater in northern Arizona, U.S.A. Indeed, the Arizona crater may once have looked very similar to this, but erosion on Earth has been more vigorous than on the modern Mars. Large boulders, many of them bigger than a typical house, can be seen in the ejecta blanket and on the crater floor. Fine, bright dust, common throughout Arabia Terra, has thinly mantled all but the steepest slopes. The image is illuminated by sunlight from the left/upper left. The picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across.