HiPOD: Sunday, 4 October 2020
Colorful Layers Exposed in the Walls of an Impact Crater

Colorful Layers Exposed in the Walls of an Impact Crater
This image covers most of an impact crater about 6 to 7 kilometers wide. Partway down from the crater rim is a prominent bright layer of bedrock.

The full-resolution color data shows three distinct bedrock colors: yellow, light blue-green, and dark blue (in enhanced infrared colors). (North is down in the cutout, so the crater rim is near the top, which helps my brain to interpret the geometry.) These layers must correspond to different types of rock that were deposited as nearly flat-lying sheets, perhaps a combination of lava flows and sediments.

The relatively blue colors in HiRISE infrared color often correspond to minerals like olivine and pyroxene that are common in lava.

ID: ESP_028693_1535
date: 9 September 2012
altitude: 256 km

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_028693_1535
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
#Mars #science #NASA

Black & white is less than 5 km across; enhanced color is less than 1 km. For full observation details, visit the ID link.