NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Arcuate Fractures in Olympus Mons Caldera

Image Context:


Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
[ Find on map: Javascript version ]

[ Find on map: CGI version ]

This VIS image was taken at the boundary of Elysium

Planitia (to the north) and Lacus Planum (to the south).

The southern part of the image is topographically higher

than the plains to the north. At this boundary the

highland surface is undergoing erosion. Arcuate

fractures are seen in the bottom part of the image,

some of which are bounding tilted blocks of material.

It is possible that a volatile rich subsurface layer

has been changed by erosion/exposure, causing the

upperlying surface to fracture and collapse.

[Source: ASU THEMIS Science Team]

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Arizona State University