Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Layers, Boulders, and Dust

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-364, 18 May 2003


NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) picture shows the wall of a trough in the Zephyrus Fossae region, west of the Elysium Rise near 27.9°N, 217.5°W. The trough wall has cut through and exposed layered bedrock, visible near the top of the wall. Talus covers the lower portions of the wall; this debris includes many automobile- and house-sized boulders---most of which are seen as dark dots at the base of the slope. Dust has coated and mantled much of this terrain, including some of the boulders. The dark streak near the center of the picture was formed by landsliding (or avalanching) of some of the dust. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left.

Other versions of this picture:
300 dpi JPG
300 dpi TIF

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.

To MSSS Home Page