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This VIS image of the northwestern end of Gordii Dorsum shows where the dorsum meets Amazonis Planitia. This area of Mars is dominated by poorly cemented surface material that is easily eroded by the wind. Features align with wind direction, indicating that the winds in this region blew to the northwest. Gordii Dorsum is part of the larger Medusa Fossae Formation of wind eroded materials south and southwest of Olympus Mons. The nature of the material being eroded is not known, but may be ash fall from the large volcanoes in the region.

Orbit Number: 86244 Latitude: 10.6389 Longitude: 210.903 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2021-05-24 15:22

Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.