Gale Crater is a large (152 kilometer diameter) crater in the cratered highlands of Mars near the highland/lowland divide. The crater contains a large central mound of layered, or stratified, material that is more than 2 km thick in some places.

Visible in this image is a deep chasm cutting through these layers, which are spectacularly exposed in the chasm walls. On the floor of this chasm is a sinuous, positive-relief feature that may be an inverted channel deposit. Inverted channels occur when sediment in a stream hardens and becomes cemented in place due to water-deposited minerals. After the flow ceased, later erosion removed the surrounding softer rock, leaving the cemented channel deposit as a positive rather than a negative relief feature.

This chasm may actually be classified as a canyon, which is specifically a chasm or gorge that was carved by running water.

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.