Elysium Planitia

Scaled Image

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU

About this image

The style of erosion along the highlands-lowlands boundary of southern Elysium Planitia has produced a strange pattern of troughs that look like the skin of a reptile. In reality, a very clear process of landscape degradation is evident in this image. Some process has produced polygon-shaped troughs that create zones of weakness in the uppermost crust. It is likely that wind-blown particles deepen and widen the troughs, producing isolated knobs and mesas. Ultimately, the erosional reworking of the landscape is so complete that all signs ofthe upper layer are removed, leaving the smooth lowland surface to the north.

Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images. 

Context

Image ID: 
V03539003 (View data in Mars Image Explorer)
-0.1454
172.131
3539
2002-10-01 15:55
Fri, 2002-10-25
VIS
1024 pixels (18 km)
3648 pixels (64 km)
0.017687 km/pixel
0.017816 km/pixel

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