Beautiful Blocks of Bedrock
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Beautiful Blocks of Bedrock
ESP_044902_1575  Science Theme: Impact Processes
This image targets a 3-kilometer diameter crater that occurs within the ejecta blanket of the much older Bakhuysen Crater, a 150-kilometer diameter impact crater in Noachis Terra.

Impact craters are interesting because they provide a mechanism to uplift and expose underlying bedrock, allowing for the study of the subsurface and the geologic past. An enhanced color image shows the wall of the crater, which exposes layering as well as blocks of rock. There is a distinctive large block in the upper left of the crater wall, generally referred to as a “mega-block.” It is an angular, light-toned, highly fragmented block, about 100 meters across. Several smaller light-toned blocks are also in the crater wall, possibly of the same rock type as the “mega-block.”

Ejecta blocks are thrown outward during the initial excavation of a crater, or are deposited as part of the ground-hugging flows of which the majority of the ejecta blanket is comprised. Through images like these, we are able to study the deeper subsurface of Mars that is not otherwise exposed.

Written by: Christy Caudill, Livio Tornabene, Ian Pritchard and Eric Pilles (narration: Tre Gibbs)  (1 June 2016)

This is a stereo pair with ESP_044968_1575.
 
Acquisition date
24 February 2016

Local Mars time
15:12

Latitude (centered)
-22.186°

Longitude (East)
13.942°

Spacecraft altitude
256.9 km (159.7 miles)

Original image scale range
25.7 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~77 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
2.1°

Phase angle
66.7°

Solar incidence angle
65°, with the Sun about 25° above the horizon

Solar longitude
113.4°, Northern Summer

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  46.8°
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   (885MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (548MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected  (471MB)
non-map           (477MB)

IRB color
map projected  (170MB)
non-map           (445MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (186MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (177MB)

RGB color
non map           (458MB)
ANAGLYPHS
Map-projected, reduced-resolution
Full resolution JP2 download
Anaglyph details page

BONUS
4K (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.