NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Landslide in Sirenum

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-831, 27 August 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a landslide deposit in a deep trough in Terra Sirenum near 26.1°S, 140.0°W. After the landslide occurred, subsequent erosion of the slope produced talus that covers part of the landslide deposit. This area is about 3 km (1.9 mi) across; sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower 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.