Volcanic Vent in the Tharsis Region
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Volcanic Vent in the Tharsis Region
PSP_001695_2080  Science Theme: Volcanic Processes
This HiRISE image shows a volcanic vent in the Tharsis region of Mars.

Tharsis is primarily a volcanic highland, containing several of the largest shield volcanoes in the Solar System and many smaller volcanic edifices.

However, tectonics has also played an important role in shaping the region. The Tharsis rise is riddled with faults and fractures. The area depicted in the subimage lies between three sets of fractures - the Cyane Fossae, the Ceraunius Fossae, and the Olympic Fossae - and on the flank of a low volcanic shield. The prominent trough in the HiRISE image is a volcanic vent.

Shallow depressions with scalloped edges span the western (left) half of the vent. These may be places where lakes of lava once stood. The lava that ponded in the lakes probably drained back into the vent towards the end of the eruption. On the eastern (right) side of the subimage, small channels that once transported lava feed away from the vent to both the north and south.

Originally, the vent must have been a deep and narrow fissure, but it has become more trough-like with time as material tumbled from its walls and settled on its floor. This "mass wasting" process has exposed lava flows in cross section in the walls of the trough.



Written by: W. L. Jaeger  (17 January 2007)
 
Acquisition date
06 December 2006

Local Mars time
15:29

Latitude (centered)
27.606°

Longitude (East)
246.942°

Spacecraft altitude
280.2 km (174.2 miles)

Original image scale range
28.1 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~84 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
2.2°

Phase angle
48.3°

Solar incidence angle
51°, with the Sun about 39° above the horizon

Solar longitude
146.2°, Northern Summer

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  1.0°
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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.