A Mysterious Fractured Depression on Mars
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
A Mysterious Fractured Depression on Mars
ESP_071541_2200  Science Theme: Tectonic Processes
While we have learned so much about Mars after over 50 years of exploration with spacecraft, there are some features that continue to be mysteries.

These depressions, found near the northern edge of the ancient highlands, have fractures that indicate collapse toward their centers. This pattern can be found on glaciers that sit atop volcanoes after a small eruption has melted some of the ice.

It is plausible that there is substantial ice buried underground at this location on Mars but there is no obvious process to remove some of the ice to form these depressions.

Written by: Laszlo Kestay (narration: Tre Gibbs)  (19 January 2022)

This is a stereo pair with ESP_071607_2200.
 
Acquisition date
30 October 2021

Local Mars time
15:25

Latitude (centered)
39.451°

Longitude (East)
6.641°

Spacecraft altitude
298.7 km (185.7 miles)

Original image scale range
30.3 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~91 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
9.2°

Phase angle
56.2°

Solar incidence angle
47°, with the Sun about 43° above the horizon

Solar longitude
120.2°, Northern Summer

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  359.1°
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   (551MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (323MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected  (273MB)
non-map           (339MB)

IRB color
map projected  (93MB)
non-map           (197MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (140MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (135MB)

RGB color
non map           (194MB)
ANAGLYPHS
Map-projected, reduced-resolution
Full resolution JP2 download
Anaglyph details page

BONUS
4K (TIFF)
8K (TIFF)
10K (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.