All along the Fractures
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
All along the Fractures
ESP_042223_1890  Science Theme: Aeolian Processes
We often take images of sand dunes to study the mobile soils. These images provide information about erosion and movement of surface material, about wind and weather patterns, even about the soil grains and grain sizes. However, looking past the dunes, these images also reveal the nature of the substrate beneath.

Within the spaces between the dunes, a resistant and highly fractured surface is revealed. The fractured ground is resistant to erosion by the wind, and suggests the material is bedrock that is now shattered by a history of bending stresses or temperature changes, such as cooling, for example.

Alternately, the surface may be a sedimentary layer that was once wet and shrunk and fractured as it dried, like gigantic mud cracks. In either case, the relative small and indistinct fractures have trapped the dark dune sand marching overhead. Now the fractures have become quite distinct, allowing us to examine the orientation and spacing of the fractures to learn more about the processes that formed them.

Written by: Mike Mellon (narration: Tre Gibbs)  (30 September 2015)
 
Acquisition date
30 July 2015

Local Mars time
14:33

Latitude (centered)
8.719°

Longitude (East)
67.347°

Spacecraft altitude
272.0 km (169.1 miles)

Original image scale range
27.4 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~82 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
6.5°

Phase angle
44.4°

Solar incidence angle
38°, with the Sun about 52° above the horizon

Solar longitude
20.3°, Northern Spring

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  9.1°
JPEG
Black and white
map projected  non-map

IRB color
map projected  non-map

Merged IRB
map projected

Merged RGB
map projected

RGB color
non-map projected

JP2
Black and white
map-projected   (809MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (480MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected  (380MB)
non-map           (443MB)

IRB color
map projected  (155MB)
non-map           (371MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (197MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (199MB)

RGB color
non map           (366MB)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
B&W label
Color label
Merged IRB label
Merged RGB label
EDR products
HiView

NB
IRB: infrared-red-blue
RGB: red-green-blue
About color products (PDF)

Black & white is 5 km across; enhanced color about 1 km
For scale, use JPEG/JP2 black & white map-projected images

USAGE POLICY
All of the images produced by HiRISE and accessible on this site are within the public domain: there are no restrictions on their usage by anyone in the public, including news or science organizations. We do ask for a credit line where possible:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

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.