How Did the Mound in Gale Crater Form?
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
How Did the Mound in Gale Crater Form?
ESP_030880_1750  Science Theme: Sedimentary/Layering Processes
Scientists have been wondering about the origin of the central mound in Gale Crater since before Curiosity landed nearby. One hypothesis was that a lake of liquid water once filled the crater, and the layers in the mound formed as sediment settled down through the water to the bottom of the lake.

Other hypotheses involved dust or volcanic ash that fell through the air to form layers. In either case, the layers could have later eroded away at the edges to form a central mound.

HiRISE took many images with the goal of figuring out this mystery. Now, a new paper by Edwin Kite of Caltech claims that the layers were formed by wind action, not liquid water.

Kite and the coauthors used HiRISE stereo to make digital elevation models, then measured the dip angle of the layers at the edges of the mound. The layers are tilted outward, not flat and horizontal across the mound. Their model shows how wind alone could have formed layers at the same angles they see in the Gale mound, so there didn't have to be a lake in Gale Crater.

Curiosity will be able to test this model. If wind alone formed this mound, Curiosity might not find much evidence for water-related processes there.

See also: Growth and form of the mound in Gale Crater, Mars: Slope wind enhanced erosion and transport. Geology, May 2013, v. 41, p. 543-546. Kite, Edwin S., Kevin W. Lewis, Michael P. Lamb, Claire E. Newman and Mark I. Richardson.

Written by: Ingrid Daubar  (22 May 2013)

This is a stereo pair with ESP_030102_1750.
 
Acquisition date
26 February 2013

Local Mars time
14:47

Latitude (centered)
-5.035°

Longitude (East)
137.503°

Spacecraft altitude
269.0 km (167.2 miles)

Original image scale range
27.0 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~81 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

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Equirectangular

Emission angle
9.2°

Phase angle
36.6°

Solar incidence angle
45°, with the Sun about 45° above the horizon

Solar longitude
272.1°, Northern Winter

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North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  334.2°
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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.