PIA21266: 'Wing' Dike of Hardened Lava in New Mexico
This photograph from northwestern New Mexico shows a ridge roughly 30 feet (about 10 meters) tall that formed from lava filling an underground fracture then resisting erosion better than the material around it did.
 Target Name:  Earth
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) 
 Product Size:  4608 x 3456 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA21266.tif (39.07 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA21266.jpg (1.569 MB)  

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Original Caption Released with Image:

This photograph from northwestern New Mexico shows a ridge roughly 30 feet (about 10 meters) tall that formed from lava filling an underground fracture then resisting erosion better than the material around it did.

The dike extends from a volcanic peak (out of view here) called Shiprock in English and Tsé Bit'a'í, meaning "rock with wings," in the Navajo language. It offers an Earth analog for some larger hardened-lava walls on Mars, shown at PIA21264.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2017-01-25