NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Meridiani’s Rocks

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-923, 27 November 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Sinus Meridiani is the site of the largest outcropping of
light-toned, layered sedimentary rocks on Mars. Last January, the
Mars Exploration Rover (MER-B), Opportunity, landed in a
portion of central Sinus Meridiani and has since that time
been exploring the local outcrops of light-toned, sedimentary
rock. Where Opportunity landed, most of the sedimentary rocks
are covered by a regolith of windblown sand and granules. At the
rover site, rock outcrops are found mostly in crater walls.
Further to the north, the outcrops are not covered with sediment.
Vast plains of exposed sedimentary rock, covering an
area several times larger than all the sedimentary
rock exposures of northern Arizona, New Mexico, and eastern
Utah, combined, are found in northern and eastern Sinus Meridiani.
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows some of the northern Sinus Meridiani sedimentary
rock outcrops. It also shows the locations of several meteor
impact craters that have been degraded as the sedimentary rocks
have been eroded away. The large, dark, circular area near
the top of the picture may mark the location of a crater
that is still mostly filled and buried beneath dark, windblown
debris. The sedimentary rocks of northern Sinus Meridiani have
been known to occur there for at least the past seven years.
They were initially described in a paper in Science
describing MOC results about sedimentary rocks on Mars, published
in December 2000 (see
“Sedimentary rocks of early Mars”). This image is located
near 2.3°N, 2.0°W, and
covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide. 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.