NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Schiaparelli Sedimentary Rocks

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-403, 26 June 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Some of the most important high resolution imaging results of
the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
experiment center on discoveries about the presence and nature
of the sedimentary rock record on Mars. This old meteor impact
crater in northwestern Schiaparelli Basin exhibits a
spectacular view of layered, sedimentary rock. The 2.3 kilometer
(1.4 miles) wide crater may have once been completely filled with
sediment; the material was later eroded to its present form. Dozens
of layers of similar thickness and physical properties are now
expressed in a wedding cake-like stack in the middle of the crater.
Sunlight illuminating the scene from the left shows that the circle,
or mesa top, at the middle of the crater stands higher than the other
stair-stepped layers. The uniform physical properties and bedding of
these layers might indicate that they were originally deposited in
a lake (it is possible that the crater was at the bottom of a much
larger lake, filling Schiaparelli Basin); alternatively,
the layers were deposited by settling out of the atmosphere in a
dry environment. This picture was acquired on June 3, 2003, and
is located near 0.9°S, 346.2°W.