NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Inverted Valley 09-11-2005
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1210, 10 September 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an inverted valley in eastern Arabia Terra. The relatively flat-topped ridge that runs down much of the length of this picture was once the floor, or a material covering the floor, of an ancient martian valley. The floor material was harder and more resistant to erosion than the rocks into which the valley had been cut. Thus, erosion removed the rocks that were cut by the valley, and then removed additional rocks that were lower than the valley floor, leaving what was once a valley as a high-standing ridge. |
Location near: 11.4°N, 312.9°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: lower left |
Season: Northern Autumn |
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.
