NASA Mars Picture of the Day: West Arabian Yardangs

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-852, 17 September 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

The upper crust of Mars consists of layered bedrock. The terrain
located between large impact craters is layered. In some regions,
some of these layers have been exposed by erosion.
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows rounded and streamlined hills produced by
wind erosion. In this case, the dominant, erosive winds blew from
the upper right (northeast) toward lower left (southwest). The
presence of these erosional forms, yardangs, indicates
that the material being eroded contains some amount of sand-sized
grains that are easily mobilized by wind. These particular yardangs
are located in western Arabia Terra, northwest of the Sinus
Meridiani region where the Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity,
has examined ancient sedimentary rocks. These landforms are located
near 9.4°N, 6.5°W. The image
covers an area approximately 3 km (1.9 mi) across and
is illuminated by sunlight from the 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.