Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Becquerel Layers

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-350, 4 May 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows layered sedimentary rock outcrops in Becquerel Crater of western Arabia Terra. These materials were deposited in the crater some time in the distant past, and later eroded to their present form. They probably consist of fine-grained sediments; they could have been deposited directly from dust and/or volcanic ash settling out of the martian atmosphere, or silt and sand settling to the floor of an ancient lake. The image does not provide enough information to distinguish between the two possibilities. The picture is located near 21.5°N, 8.1°W. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower 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.

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