Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Toe of Ganges Chasma Landslide
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-295, 30 October 2001
Ganges Chasma---or Gangis Chasma (as it is sometimes spelled)---is a several
kilometers-deep side canyon at the east end of
the vast Valles Marineris trough system.
In several places, portions of the steep walls of Ganges Chasma have
collapsed down into the chasm, creating large landslide deposits. This
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image acquired
in 2001 shows the margin of one of the landslides in Ganges Chasma.
The linear grooved and ridged pattern of the upper surface of the
landslide results from shear as the mass of rock and debris was moving
across the landscape. When the landslide occurred, the debris was moving
from the upper right toward the lower left.
Dark sand dunes are banked up against the landslide deposit margins,
indicating that considerable time has elapsed since the landslide
occurred. The scene
is illuminated from the upper left. The box at upper left shows
the landslide location in Ganges Chasma, and the 500 m scale bar
equals ~547 yards.
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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