Catalog Page for PIA23672

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.

PIA23672: Mounds Cut by a Fissure

This image, acquired on December 31, 2019 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows four relatively bright mounds along a linear, curving feature that appears to be a rift zone.

Target Name:	Mars
Is a satellite of:	Sol (our sun)
Mission:	Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
Spacecraft:	Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
Instrument:	HiRISE
Product Size:	2880 x 1800 pixels (w x h)
Produced By:	University of Arizona/HiRISE-LPL
Other Information:	Other products from ESP_062943_2230
Full-Res TIFF:	PIA23672.tif (5.191 MB)
Full-Res JPEG:	PIA23672.jpg (1.327 MB)

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:

Map Projected Browse Image
Click on image for larger version

This image shows four relatively bright mounds along a linear, curving feature that appears to be a rift zone, where the shallow surface materials have pulled apart. The mounds also appear to be deformed.

A possible geologic interpretation is that as the rift began to open, subsurface material (perhaps mud) erupted to create the mounds, which were then deformed as the rift continued to spread. This region (Chryse Planitia) is a low-elevation basin in which large outflow channels deposited water and sediments billions of years ago.

The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. (The original image scale is 30.5 centimeters [12.0 inches] per pixel [with 1 x 1 binning]; objects on the order of 92 centimeters [36.2 inches] across are resolved.) North is up.

The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in 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.

Image Credit:

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Image Addition Date:

2020-01-21