At the Summit of Arsia Mons Volcano
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
At the Summit of Arsia Mons Volcano
PSP_002157_1715  Science Theme: Volcanic Processes
Like the other major shield volcanoes on Mars, Arsia Mons has a caldera (large volcanic crater) at its summit.

Calderas form when magma (molten rock) is removed from the magma chamber in the volcano, and the roof of the magma chamber collapses into the resulting void. In the case of Arsia Mons, there are relatively young lava flows that overtop the northeast rim of the caldera.

This HiRISE image samples some of these lava flows. The long elliptical depression is the summit crater of a small shield volcano that fed some of these lava flows. At HiRISE resolution, we see that even these younger lavas are covered by a thick layer of dust. The small dark-rayed crater in the southwest edge of the image shows that the rock under the dust is dark, as expected of lava.



Written by: Laszlo P. Keszthelyi  (14 February 2007)
 
Acquisition date
11 January 2007

Local Mars time
15:41

Latitude (centered)
-8.454°

Longitude (East)
240.136°

Spacecraft altitude
244.7 km (152.1 miles)

Original image scale range
49.0 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning) so objects ~147 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
50 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
0.1°

Phase angle
57.1°

Solar incidence angle
57°, with the Sun about 33° above the horizon

Solar longitude
165.0°, Northern Summer

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  19.8°
JPEG
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map-projected   (108MB)

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JP2 EXTRAS
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map-projected  (41MB)
non-map           (76MB)

IRB color
map projected  (14MB)
non-map           (60MB)

Merged IRB
map projected  (101MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected  (103MB)

RGB color
non map           (57MB)
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.