NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Dike near Auqakuh
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1249, 13 October 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a dike exhumed by erosion from beneath the cratered terrain near Auqakuh Vallis in northeastern Arabia Terra. The dike is the narrow, discontinuous ridge that cuts diagonally from the northwest (upper left) toward the southeast (lower right) across the scene. Typically, a dike is formed underground when molten rock—magma—is injected through a crack or fault. The magma eventually cools and hardens. A dike can also sometimes form in a non-volcanic setting by injection of wet sediment (which later hardens to rock) into an overlying sedimentary layer. The ridge is formed later, when surrounding rocks are eroded away, leaving the more erosion-resistant rock behind as a ridge. For an example on Earth, the famous Shiprock in northwestern New Mexico, U.S.A., has several dikes associated with it. |
Location near: 31.4°N, 299.0°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: lower left |
Season: Northern Winter |
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.
