NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Small Landslide in Kasei

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-643, 21 February 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

The finger-shaped lobe just right of center in
this Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image is the deposit of a small landslide that came down
a dark, layered slope. Landslides are common
on Mars in areas of steep topography; this one is located
in the Kasei Valles region
near 23.9°N, 67.1°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left; the
picture covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide.

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.