This observation shows the southern latitude crater Hale, a rather large, pristine elliptical crater approximately ~125 x 150 km in diameter. Hale Crater possesses sharp features, impact melt bodies ponded through out the structure and few overprinting impact craters. These attributes indicate that it is relatively young and certainly well-preserved -- likely the youngest crater of this size on Mars!

Present on the crater walls are a large number of gullies, some with light-toned deposits. The gullies seen here are very well developed, and many are cut deeply into the crater walls. Several have braided channels suggestive of repeated flow. Some of the gullies have boulders littered throughout their channels. This could be a result of a fluid preferentially transporting smaller particles and leaving larger rubble behind. The composition of the light-toned deposits are currently unknown. The CRISM visible-infrared spectrometer, HiRISE's sister instrument on MRO, may be able to shed some light on the composition of these materials.

In one place along the crater rim (see subimage, approximately 1 kilometer across; 3995 x 3420; 13 MB) gullies are visible on both sides of the rim. This has only been seen in a few locations on Mars.

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov. 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. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona. The image data were processed using the U.S. Geological Survey’s ISIS3 software.