Layered Outcrops on Crater Floor
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Layered Outcrops on Crater Floor
ESP_011631_1515  Science Theme: Sedimentary/Layering Processes
This image shows part of the floor of an impact crater on the northern rim of the giant Hellas Basin.

Hellas includes the lowest elevations on Mars, and may have once held lakes or seas; layered rock outcrops occur around much of the edge of the basin. At this site, a large impact crater (about 90 kilometers across) was partly filled by layered rocks. These rocks on the crater floor are now eroding and forming strange pits.

Here, the layers are mostly exposed on a steep slope which cuts across much of the image. On this slope, they crop out as rocky stripes, some continuous and others not. The material between the stripes is mostly covered by debris, but some areas of exposed rock are visible. The slope is capped by a thick, continuous layer that armors it against erosion; once this cap is gone, the lower material is removed rapidly, forming the steep slope. At the base of this slope, rocks on the floor of the pit appear bright and heavily fragmented by cracks known as joints.

The variation in rock types suggests that the rocks here were deposited by multiple processes or in different environments. Sites like this may preserve a record of conditions on early Mars.

Written by: Colin Dundas  (18 February 2009)
 
Acquisition date
18 January 2009

Local Mars time
15:55

Latitude (centered)
-28.438°

Longitude (East)
57.087°

Spacecraft altitude
256.9 km (159.7 miles)

Original image scale range
from 25.7 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) to 51.4 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning)

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
0.3°

Phase angle
60.1°

Solar incidence angle
60°, with the Sun about 30° above the horizon

Solar longitude
193.8°, Northern Autumn

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  15.4°
JPEG
Black and white
map projected  non-map

IRB color
map projected  non-map

Merged IRB
map projected

Merged RGB
map projected

RGB color
non-map projected

JP2
Black and white
map-projected   (1131MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (526MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected  (555MB)
non-map           (574MB)

IRB color
map projected  (238MB)
non-map           (592MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (315MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (301MB)

RGB color
non map           (598MB)
BONUS
4K (TIFF)
8K (TIFF)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
B&W label
Color label
Merged IRB label
Merged RGB label
EDR products
HiView

NB
IRB: infrared-red-blue
RGB: red-green-blue
About color products (PDF)

Black & white is 5 km across; enhanced color about 1 km
For scale, use JPEG/JP2 black & white map-projected images

USAGE POLICY
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.