Context image

Olympica Fossae is a complex channel located on the volcanic plains between Alba Mons and Olympus Mons. The sinuosity of the large channel in the middle of the image indicates that this is a channel created by liquid flow. In this case the location and other surface features point to lava rather than water as the liquid. Subtle dark slope streaks are visible both in the channel walls and in the small crater at the bottom of the image. These features are thought to form by downslope movement of material which either reveals the darker rock beneath the dust coating, or creates the darker surface by flow of a volatile just beneath the dust coating.

Orbit Number: 94466 Latitude: 25.8495 Longitude: 248.788 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2023-04-01 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.