Map Projected Browse Image
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This colorful image, acquired on May 21, 2018 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows clays within the Eridania basin region. Many scientists using orbital data have proposed that a large lake may have once existed here during the Late Noachian through Early Hesperian time periods, and then much of the water drained out to the north via Ma'adim Vallis.

Understanding where and what kind of clay exists within this region using CRISM data can help scientists learn more about how long the postulated lake existed and the water chemistry within the lake.

The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 55.3 centimeters (21.6 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 166 centimeters (65.4 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.

This is a stereo pair with PSP_010888_1510.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.