Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Flooded Crater in Terra Sirenum

Image Context:


Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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The floor of this crater displays interesting textures and it appears to have been flooded by some type of material.
It is unclear if this material was fluvially emplaced mud (hyperconcentrated flows) or lava. However, there are no volcanic constructs in the immediate region
and the fact that the crater rim was breached by Labou Vallis to the east (see regional view in image context) suggests that this material may indeed be mudflows.

[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