Impact craters are sometimes nicknamed 'Mother Nature's drill holes' because, thanks to them, deep rock formations are exposed at the surface. Bonestell Crater is a good example.

This image depicts part of the floor of this relatively young impact crater located in the Northern Lowlands. The Northern Lowlands occupy most of the northern half of Mars. They are younger than the Southern Highlands, as shown by the lower number of impact craters, and well below the planet's average elevation. Their origin is still a mystery.

Bonestell is 42 kilometers (26 miles) in diameter and 1,250 meters (4,100 feet) deep. The rocky hills on the floor of this crater constitute its 'central peak'. Central peaks form due to elastic rebound of subsurface materials immediately after impact. The rocks in Bonestell's central peak may have been 4-to-8 km below the surface before impact.

This subimage (437x500 m or 479x547 yards; 11 Mb) of the HiRISE image shows a portion of Bonestell's central peak. HiRISE reveals details in the structure and color of these deep rocks that will help scientists decipher the origin and history of the Northern Lowlands.


Written by: Sara Martinez-Alonso

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: Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

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.