NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: A Different Medusae Fossae Formation

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Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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The western-most mound of the discontinuous deposit of Medusae Fossae Formation (MFF) shows a style of erosion different from the typical. The MFF commonly displays a range of yardang features, the boat hull shaped ridges that result from wind erosion, like those seen in a previous THEMIS image. The current image shows no obvious yardangs and instead shows pits and troughs that appear to be due to collapse rather than wind erosion.

[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