Science and Exploration

Faults Within Northern Meridiani Planum On Mars

By Keith Cowing
Status Report
NASA
April 22, 2023
Filed under ,
Faults Within Northern Meridiani Planum On Mars
Meridiani Planum
NASA

This image of northern Meridiani Planum shows faults that have disrupted layered deposits. Some of the faults produced a clean break along the layers, displacing and offsetting individual beds (yellow arrow).

Interestingly, the layers continue across the fault and appear stretched out (green arrow). These observations suggest that some of the faulting occurred while the layered deposits were still soft and could undergo deformation, whereas other faults formed later when the layers must have been solidified and produced a clean break.

Larger image

SpaceRef co-founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.