NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Meridiani Sedimentary Rocks

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-545, 15 November 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Northern Sinus Meridiani is a region of vast exposures
of layered, sedimentary rock. Buried within these layers
are many filled impact craters. Erosion has re-exposed
several formerly-buried craters in this
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image. Arrows 1 and 2 indicate craters that are still
emerging from beneath layered material; arrow 3 indicates
a crater that has been fully re-exposed.
This image is located near
5.1°N, 2.7°W. The area shown is about 3 km
(1.9 mi) wide and illuminated from the left/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.