NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Polar Exposure
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1554, 14 August 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows an unconformity in a sequence of layered material in the martian north polar region. MGS MOC has been examining many similar examples of unconformities created by erosion in the polar region this year. Long ago, the lower set of layers was deposited. Then, deposition ceased, and erosion occurred for some period. Then, the erosional period ended, and new layers were deposited. The older layers—the ones deposited before the erosive event—today appear truncated by the younger, more evenly-bedded layers. No one is certain what composes the north polar layers; they may be sequences of dust and ice. |
| Location near: 84.3°N, 235.6°W |
| Image width: ~4 km (~2.5 mi) |
| Illumination from: lower left |
| Season: Northern Spring |
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.
