Light Outcrop on Crater Floor
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Light Outcrop on Crater Floor
PSP_001860_1685  Science Theme: Geologic Contacts/Stratigraphy
This observation shows part of the floor of a large impact crater in the southern highlands, north of the giant Hellas impact basin. Most of the crater floor is dark, with abundant small ripples of wind-blown material. However, a pit in the floor of the crater has exposed light-toned, fractured rock.

The light-toned material appears fractured at several different scales. These fractures are called joints, and result from stresses on the rock after its formation.

Joints are similar to faults, but have undergone virtually no displacement. With careful analysis, joints can provide insight into the forces that have affected a unit of rock, and thus into its geologic history. The fractures appear dark; this may be due to trapping of dark, wind-blown sand in the crack, to precipitation of different minerals along the fracture, or both.



Written by: Colin Dundas  (21 March 2007)
 
Acquisition date
19 December 2006

Local Mars time
15:40

Latitude (centered)
-11.279°

Longitude (East)
69.427°

Spacecraft altitude
258.9 km (160.9 miles)

Original image scale range
from 26.1 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) to 52.3 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning)

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
5.4°

Phase angle
54.4°

Solar incidence angle
59°, with the Sun about 31° above the horizon

Solar longitude
152.8°, Northern Summer

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  26.5°
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HiView

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RGB: red-green-blue
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Black & white is 5 km across; enhanced color about 1 km
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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.