Status Report

Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Hrad Valles

By SpaceRef Editor

July 15, 2002

Filed under Daily Themis Pictures, Mars Odyssey THEMIS, US

Image Context:

Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team

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Hrad Valles is located north-northwest of the large Elysium Mons volcanic
complex and is yet another example of a channel that likely carried fluids.
The formation of Hrad Valles may have differed from some other channels on
Mars in that its proximity to Elysium Mons could have promoted significant
interactions between ground water or ice and the lavas of the volcano.
Some scientists have suggested that very hot subsurface lavas may have
intruded the local rocks and quickly melted and vaporized ground ice,
causing the overlying rock to be broken up and possibly ejected. The
breakup and ejection of the local rocks, combined with the newly formed
volcanic rocks and melted ice, could have resulted in the formation of
mudflows at the source of Hrad Valles, and over the longer term, continued
release of melt water that carved the long, sinuous channel.

[Source: ASU THEMIS Science Team]

Note: this THEMIS visual image has not been radiometrically nor geometrically calibrated for this preliminary release. An empirical correction has been performed to remove instrumental effects. A linear shift has been applied in the cross-track and down-track direction to approximate spacecraft and planetary motion. Fully calibrated and geometrically projected images will be released through the Planetary Data System in accordance with Project policies at a later time.

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