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Today's VIS image shows part of Claritas Fossae. The linear features (fossae) are graben, a tectonic feature created when blocks of material subside between paired faults. These graben filled highlands are bounded by Solis Planum to the northeast and Icaria Planum to the southwest. Extensional tectonic forces are responsible for graben formation. While close to the Tharsis region, it is thought that Claritas Fossae formed prior to the large lava flows located north of this image. The large, deepest depression is younger than the other graben of Claritas Fossae. It is not known if it formed just after the other graben, or at a much later time.

Orbit Number: 90760 Latitude: -12.0301 Longitude: 249.617 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2022-05-31 11:34

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.