HiRISE | An Inverted Crater West of Mawrth Vallis (PSP_009115_2040)

An Inverted Crater West of Mawrth Vallis

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

An Inverted Crater West of Mawrth Vallis
PSP_009115_2040 Science Theme: Future Exploration/Landing Sites

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This image captures details of an approximately 1-kilometer inverted crater west of Mawrth Vallis. A Context Camera image provides context for the erosional features observed at this site. The location of this HiRISE image is north of the proposed landing ellipse for the ExoMars rover mission that could investigate diverse rocks and minerals related to ancient water-related activity in this region.

Prolonged erosion removed less resistant rocks leaving behind other rocks that stand up locally such as the crater seen here and other nearby remnants. These resistant layers may belong to a phase of volcanism and/or water-related activity that carved Mawrth Vallis and filled in existing craters, and other lower-lying depressions, with darker materials.

Erosion has also exposed these layers down to older, more resistant lighter rocks that are clay-bearing. The diversity of exposed bedrock made this location an ideal candidate for exploring a potentially water-rich ancient environment that might have once harbored life.

Written by: Radu Capitan, Livio Tornabene, Eric Pilles and Matt Bourassa (27 November 2017)

Acquisition date
06 July 2008

Local Mars time
15:18

Latitude (centered)
23.829°

Longitude (East)
341.075°

Spacecraft altitude
286.5 km (178.1 miles)

Original image scale range
28.7 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~86 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
0.3°

Phase angle
44.8°

Solar incidence angle
45°, with the Sun about 45° above the horizon

Solar longitude
95.1°, Northern Summer

For non-map projected images
North azimuth: 97°
Sub-solar azimuth: 17.6°

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JP2 EXTRAS
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map-projected (234MB)

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non map           (343MB)

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
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IRB: infrared-red-blue
RGB: red-green-blue
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Black & white is 5 km across; enhanced color about 1 km
For scale, use JPEG/JP2 black & white map-projected images

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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.