NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Layers Below Arsia

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-980, 23 January 2005

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows layered rock outcropping in a pit on the lower
west flank of Arsia Mons, one of the large Tharsis shield
volcanoes. Given their location, these layers are very
likely dominated by volcanic rocks, including lava flows.
This depression is located near 8.8°S, 123.7°W.
The image covers an area about
4.8 km (3 mi) wide and is illuminated by sunlight from the
lower right.

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.