Mars Picture of the Day: Tractus Catena Collapse Pits

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-386, 9 June 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This chain of pits formed by collapse as faulting
extended the upper crust in the Tractus Catena
region of Mars. The layered bedrock can be seen
in the upper walls of each pit in this
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image.
The picture covers an area
about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide near
28.5°N, 102.9°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left.

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.