HiRISE Student Image of the Week: Intersection of Hyblaeus and Elysium Chasmata
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
HiRISE Student Image of the Week: Intersection of Hyblaeus and Elysium Chasmata
PSP_003545_2025  Science Theme: Fluvial Processes
Steve Halla’s class at Leap Academy Charter High School in Camden, NJ, suggested this image, a region near the intersection of Elysium Chasma and Hyblaeus Chasma. The class suggested that seeing a cross-section of Hyblaeus Chasma in the walls of Elysium Chasma might shed light on the mechanism(s) that formed it.

A cross-section of Hyblaeu Chasma is visible in the first subimage. The chasm seems to be filled with a resistant light-toned layer, about 200 meters thick (likely consisting of cemented windblown sand and dust) forming a mantling unit and overlying more resistant boulder-rich layers. The sand and dust was likely blown into Hyblaeu Chasma after it was formed by tectonic processes, possibly in combination with fluvial processes. The chasmata were subsequently broadened by hillslope erosion: boulders are strewn along the top of this dusty mantling unit. Slumping, possibly caused by faulting, along the southern wall of Hyblaeus is visible at the intersection with Elysium Chasma.

This image also shows a number of dark streaks along the walls of Elysium Chasma, further to the south. One fresh-appearing streak divides around a slight ridge in the second subimage (about 1 kilometer across). Other smaller, fainter, possibly older streaks have formed on either side of this ridge, producing a herringbone-like pattern. A number of explanations have been suggested for these streaks, including the idea that they are formed by dry avalanches of dust.


Written by: Ginny Gulick  (6 February 2008)
 
Acquisition date
29 April 2007

Local Mars time
15:22

Latitude (centered)
22.270°

Longitude (East)
141.892°

Spacecraft altitude
281.7 km (175.1 miles)

Original image scale range
from 28.6 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) to 57.2 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning)

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
8.6°

Phase angle
71.9°

Solar incidence angle
64°, with the Sun about 26° above the horizon

Solar longitude
228.4°, Northern Autumn

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  329.9°
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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.