NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Fretted Terrain Mass Movement
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1065, 18 April 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows the results of a small mass movement in a fretted terrain valley in the Coloe Fossae region of Mars (see upper right quarter of the image). The term, mass movement, is usually applied to landslides, although it is unclear in this case whether the landform resulted from a single, catastrophic landslide, or the slow creep of ice-rich debris. |
Location near: 35.3°N, 303.1°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: lower left |
Season: Northern Summer |
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.
