NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Exhumed Craters near Kaiser

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-828, 24 August 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

The upper left (northwest) corner of this
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a crater within which are several layers of eroded
material. This crater, and probably all of its degraded
neighbors, was once filled and buried, and was later
exhumed. The burial and exhumation theme is one that repeats
all over the surface of Mars, as ancient rocks are eroded
to expose previously filled and buried craters, valleys,
and landscapes. This particular image is located near the
northwest rim of Kaiser Crater, in Noachis Terra,
near 45.2°S, 342.7°W.
The image covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper 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.