Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Landslide in Kasei Valles
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-326, 04 April 2003
Images Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS
Caption by: K. S. Edgett and M. C. Malin, MSSS
The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) continues
in 2003 to return excellent, high resolution images of the red planet's
surface. This nearly 1.5 meters (5 ft.) per pixel view of a landslide
on a 200 meter-high (219 yards-high)
slope in Kasei Valles was specifically targeted
for scientific investigation by rotating the MGS spacecraft about
7.8° off-nadir in January 2003. The scar left by the landslide
reveals layers in the bedrock at the top the slope
and shows a plethora of dark-toned, house-sized boulders that
rolled down the slope and collected at the base of the landslide scar.
A few meteor impact craters have formed on the landslide deposit and
within the scar, indicating that this landslide occurred a very long
time ago. Sunlight illuminates this scene from the left/lower left;
the landslide is located near 28.3°N, 71.9°W.
Images Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Caption by: K. S. Edgett and M. C. Malin, MSSS
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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