NASA Mars Odyssey THEMIS Image: Cross-Cutting Relationships

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Context image credit: NASA/Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) Team
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The several linear cross-cutting grabens and collapse features observed in this THEMIS image illustrate the relative timing of a series of complex geologic processes as more recent events produce features that overlap and intersect older ones. Some impact craters are observed to be cut grabens, suggesting an older impact event compared to impact craters that appear fresh and unmodified.

[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