Mineral Veins
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Mineral Veins
ESP_025700_2005  Science Theme: Impact Processes
The bright linear features cutting the bedrock in the center region of this image look like mineral veins.

Mineral veins are sheetlike bodies of minerals formed by water that flows through fractures. The setting of this image is the central uplift of a large (approximately 50-kilometer diameter) impact crater, where deep, ancient bedrock was uplifted about 5 kilometers and fractured. Heat from the impact melted ice in the Martian crust, creating a hydrothermal system. This could have been a habitable environment.

A small mineral vein was recently discovered by the Opportunity rover at Endeavour Crater.

Written by: Alfred McEwen  (21 March 2012)

This is a stereo pair with ESP_025766_2005.
 
Acquisition date
20 January 2012

Local Mars time
14:50

Latitude (centered)
20.180°

Longitude (East)
69.364°

Spacecraft altitude
278.2 km (172.9 miles)

Original image scale range
28.6 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~86 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
12.6°

Phase angle
51.9°

Solar incidence angle
40°, with the Sun about 50° above the horizon

Solar longitude
59.3°, Northern Spring

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  15.7°
JPEG
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IRB color
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Merged IRB
map projected

Merged RGB
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RGB color
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JP2
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IRB color
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JP2 EXTRAS
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map-projected  (409MB)
non-map           (356MB)

IRB color
map projected  (155MB)
non-map           (338MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (191MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (180MB)

RGB color
non map           (332MB)
ANAGLYPHS
Map-projected, reduced-resolution
Full resolution JP2 download
Anaglyph details page

DIGITAL TERRAIN MODEL (DTM)
DTM details page

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.