Mystery Mounds in Southern Acidalia Planitia
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Mystery Mounds in Southern Acidalia Planitia
PSP_008548_2205  Science Theme: Rocks and Regolith
This image shows bright mounds scattered throughout a rather flat, dark landscape. These mounds range approximately between 20 and 500 meters (yards) in diameter.

The largest among them show central crater-like depressions which give them an appearance similar to terrestrial volcanoes. The origin of these mounds is still unclear. The most widely accepted hypotheses involve extrusion of underlying fluid-like materials (lava, wet/icy sediments) through weak points in the surface.

Similar mounds have been observed elsewhere in the
Northern Lowlands. (The Northern Lowlands encompass a vast region of Mars younger than the rest of the planet, as shown by lower number of impact craters, and well below its average altitude.) Mounds such as the ones shown in this image may hold important clues for scientist to decipher the history of the Northern Lowlands: an old ocean basin? The site of continental-scale volcanism? Detailed analysis of HiRISE and other complementary datasets will help solve this mystery.



Written by: Sara Martinez-Alonso  (2 July 2008)
 
Acquisition date
23 May 2008

Local Mars time
15:06

Latitude (centered)
40.079°

Longitude (East)
341.628°

Spacecraft altitude
301.0 km (187.1 miles)

Original image scale range
30.1 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~90 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
0.4°

Phase angle
42.1°

Solar incidence angle
42°, with the Sun about 48° above the horizon

Solar longitude
75.7°, Northern Spring

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  357.6°
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   (821MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (346MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected  (377MB)
non-map           (393MB)

IRB color
map projected  (128MB)
non-map           (299MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (237MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (230MB)

RGB color
non map           (288MB)
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.