NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Crater Floor Yardangs

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-927, 1 December 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a group of semi-parallel ridges–yardangs–etched
by wind into layered sedimentary rock on the floor of an
unnamed crater in Terra Cimmeria. Many craters on Mars
have been the sites of sedimentation. Over time, these
sediments have become lithified. This picture is located
near 31.3°S, 214.6°W. The image covers an
area approximately 3 km (1.9 mi) across.
Sunlight illuminates the scene 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.