NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Tractus Fossae Collapse Pit
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-419, 12 July 2003
![]() NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
Extensional faulting, wherein some fraction of the martian crust
is pulled apart and faults are formed where the bedrock breaks,
has also led to formation of collapse pits in the Tractus
Fossae region. This
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows one such pit and the layered bedrock exposed in
its walls. Dark streaks on the slopes of the pit result from
avalanches of dry, fine-grained debris (probably dust, as these
streaks are only found in the dust-mantled regions of Mars).
This pit is located
near 23.5°N, 103.8°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the
lower 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.