NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Fretted Terrain Valleys

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-895, 30 October 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows shallow tributary valleys in the Ismenius
Lacus fretted terrain region of northern Arabia Terra.
These valleys exhibit a variety of typical fretted
terrain valley wall and floor textures, including a
lineated, pitted material somewhat reminiscent of
the surface of a brain. Origins for these features are
still being debated within the Mars science community;
there are no clear analogs to these landforms on Earth.
This image is located
near 39.9°N, 332.1°W.
The picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower 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.