Dark-Toned Ridges in Meridiani

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona, Posted on: Monday, 14 May 2007, 08:40 CDT Download full size image

This HiRISE image is along the rim of an impact crater in Meridiani and shows a lighter-toned base unit with more resistant dark-toned ridges on top.

Both units exhibit complex fracture patterns. Also evident are old dune fields that have been solidified and then fractured, as well as younger, non-solidified dune fields.

More recently, the entire area has been deeply eroded by the wind.

Observation Geometry

Image PSP_003379_1835 was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on 16-Apr-2007. The complete image is centered at 3.3 degrees latitude, 357.1 degrees East longitude. The range to the target site was 271.6 km (169.7 miles). At this distance the image scale is 27.2 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~82 cm across are resolved.

The image shown here has been map-projected to 25 cm/pixel and north is up. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 03:34 PM and the scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 56 degrees, thus the sun was about 34 degrees above the horizon. At a solar longitude of 220.3 degrees, the season on Mars is Northern Autumn.

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