Gullies with Varied Shapes on a Crater Wall
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Gullies with Varied Shapes on a Crater Wall
ESP_023665_1410  Science Theme: Glacial/Periglacial Processes
This impact crater has gullies incised into its walls on the north and eastern sides. A couple of gullies on the north wall are unusual because a segment in the middle becomes wider than the upslope segment, and then narrows again downslope.

This indicates the ground was weaker here and/or that more powerful erosion took place here. Perhaps subsurface water was concentrated here, or the widened gullies are forming in a material that is coating the crater walls, instead of forming in the rock walls.

Another interesting difference is that the gullies to the east have darker central channels that extend out onto the floor of the crater, indicating they may be eroding a different material or perhaps have been active more recently.

Along with this observation's stereo pair, the three-dimensional form of these gullies can be compared, especially to see how the channel shape varies downslope.

Written by: Patrick Russell  (4 October 2011)

This is a stereo pair with ESP_024087_1410.
 
Acquisition date
14 August 2011

Local Mars time
14:15

Latitude (centered)
-38.516°

Longitude (East)
194.489°

Spacecraft altitude
252.8 km (157.1 miles)

Original image scale range
51.0 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning) so objects ~153 cm across are resolved

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50 cm/pixel and North is up

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Emission angle
6.9°

Phase angle
49.6°

Solar incidence angle
44°, with the Sun about 46° above the horizon

Solar longitude
344.6°, Northern Winter

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North azimuth:  96°
Sub-solar azimuth:  43.5°
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POSTSCRIPT
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.