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  

PIA19073: Multiple Deltas Built Out Over Time
 Mission:  Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
 Product Size:  1391 x 467 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  JPL
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA19073.tif (1.95 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA19073.jpg (69.82 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:

This diagram depicts a vertical cross section through geological layers deposited by rivers, deltas and lakes. A delta builds where a river enters a body of still water, such as a lake, and the current decelerates abruptly so sediment delivered by the river settles to the floor.

In the pattern of deposits illustrated here, a series of deltas from southward-flowing rivers have been deposited successively farther southward as the accumulating sediments raise the floor level of the basin. The delta deposits build out higher and higher in elevation as they migrate southward (toward the center of the basin) over lake deposits.

During NASA's Mars Curiosity rover's approach to the base of Mount Sharp, the rover found sedimentary rocks fitting this pattern of successive delta deposits, with the ones farther south (toward the mountain) higher in elevation. This suggests that where the mountain stands now was formerly a lake or series of lakes.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover.

More information about Curiosity is online at http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Imperial College

Image Addition Date:
2014-12-08