Fractures and Grooves in South Polar Layered Deposits
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Fractures and Grooves in South Polar Layered Deposits
PSP_006151_0975  Science Theme: Polar Geology
This close up shows a complexly fractured and grooved section of the south polar layered deposits. Illumination is from the lower right, and the scene is about 600 meters (approximately 650 yards) across.

The south polar layered deposits are an accumulation of mostly water ice and dust, similar in some ways to ice caps like those in Greenland and Antarctica. In this example, the icy, dusty layers are barely visible, obscured by a complex system of ridges and fractures that formed after the layers were deposited. The layers themselves are highlighted by sunlight and look like broad swales underlying the fracturing.

In the upper left of this example, one can see curvature in the layers which may have formed when the ice was flowing or which may have been due to collapse and slumping of some layers sometime after they were deposited but before they were fractured. The exact cause of the fracturing and grooving is unknown.

Written by: Kathryn Fishbaugh  (12 December 2007)
 
Acquisition date
18 November 2007

Local Mars time
15:41

Latitude (centered)
-82.529°

Longitude (East)
305.056°

Spacecraft altitude
247.9 km (154.1 miles)

Original image scale range
24.8 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~74 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel

Map projection
Polarstereographic

Emission angle
0.1°

Phase angle
81.3°

Solar incidence angle
81°, with the Sun about 9° above the horizon

Solar longitude
349.4°, Northern Winter

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  111°
Sub-solar azimuth:  54.3°
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EDR products
HiView

NB
IRB: infrared-red-blue
RGB: red-green-blue
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Black & white is 5 km across; enhanced color about 1 km
For scale, use JPEG/JP2 black & white map-projected images

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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.