Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Gullied Crater Wall

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-371, 25 May 2003


NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Gullies are common in some regions on middle- and polar-latitude slopes, such as crater walls. This March 2003 Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows gullies on the north wall of a crater in the Atlantis Chaos region near 34.3°S, 178.0°W. The gullies might have formed by flow of a fluid---perhaps liquid water---sometime in the geologically recent martian past. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper 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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