Southern Layered Mound and Floor in Gale Crater
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Southern Layered Mound and Floor in Gale Crater
PSP_002464_1745  Science Theme: Geologic Contacts/Stratigraphy
This observation shows the interior of Gale Crater, a region being considered as a landing site for the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory.

Gale is distinguished from many other craters on Mars by a large interior layered mound that extends to the height of the crater rim. The top part of this image contains portions of the southeast part of the mound, with the bottom part showing details of the crater floor.

The mound material here is exposed as several distinct smaller hills. Close up, the hills show abundant rocks and debris aprons on their flanks, lacking distinct bedrock layers seen elsewhere on Mars. This suggests that the mound material is friable and easily eroded by the wind over time.

Other evidence of wind activity includes bright bedforms near the top of the image and dark bedforms and sand sheets at bottom. Between the hills and dark sand are a series of stacked stratigraphic units. Polygons are visible in some of the units, indicating contraction due to water loss, cooling, or some other process. Many of the polygons appear highly fractured.

Possible crossbeds are seen in some of the rock exposures near the bottom of the image. This and other images of Gale will be studied over the coming months and years in order to better understand the geology and further assess the potential as a future landing site.



Written by: Nathan Bridges  (10 October 2007)

This is a stereo pair with PSP_003176_1745.
 
Acquisition date
04 February 2007

Local Mars time
15:42

Latitude (centered)
-5.519°

Longitude (East)
138.140°

Spacecraft altitude
267.8 km (166.4 miles)

Original image scale range
26.8 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
3.2°

Phase angle
58.9°

Solar incidence angle
56°, with the Sun about 34° above the horizon

Solar longitude
178.1°, Northern Summer

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North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  10.1°
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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.