NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Wind Erosion in Aeolis

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-813, 9 August 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows the effects of severe wind erosion of layered
sedimentary rock in the Aeolis region of Mars. The sharp
ridges formed by wind movement from the lower left (southwest)
toward top/upper right (northeast) are known as yardangs.
The dark patches in the lower half of the image are sand dunes.
This scene is located
near 5.0°S, 203.7°W, and covers an area
about 3 km (1.9 mi) across. Sunlight
illuminates the terrain from the left/upper left.

Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology
built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission.
MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, California.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Mars Surveyor Operations Project
operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial
partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena,
California and Denver, Colorado.