Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Oblique view of Gale Crater Mound
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-265E, 4 December 2000
A mound more than 2.3 kilometers (1.4 miles) thick found in the middle
of Gale Crater at 5.4°S 222.2°W exhibits a complex history
of sediment deposition, followed by lithification---i.e.
hardening to form rock---followed by erosion, cratering, and then more
deposition and lithification. This oblique view of Gale Crater, looking
toward the southeast, was generated using Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)
Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) wide angle images and MGS laser altimetry.
The colored box represents a geologic map of the different layers in
the mound that were observed in MOC narrow angle image M03-01521 taken
in July 1999. The colored map appears in the three pictures that
follow this one,
"Layered Unit in Gale Crater Mound,"
"Unconformity in Gale Crater Mound," and
"Massive Unit in Gale Crater Mound,"
to illustrate different aspects of the complicated geology
revealed by MOC in this area. For additional information about
this picture, see
Sediment History Preserved in Gale Crater Central Mound, MOC2-260, December 4, 2000.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
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,
CA. 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, CA
and Denver, CO.
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