NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Small Tharsis Volcano

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-834, 30 August 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a small volcano located southwest of the giant
volcano, Pavonis Mons,
near 2.5°S, 109.4°W. Lava flows can be seen to have
emanated from the summit region, which today is an
irregularly-shaped collapse pit, or caldera. A blanket
of dust mantles this volcano. Dust covers most martian
volcanoes, none of which are young or active today.
This picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across;
sunlight illuminates the scene from the 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.