Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Layers in Tithonium Chasma

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-445, 7 August 2003


NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Tithonium Chasma is one of the troughs of the vast Valles Marineris canyon system. Within many of these troughs are outcrops of light-toned, layered, sedimentary rock. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows eroded sedimentary rock exposures overlain by the remnants of a smoother-surfaced, dark material. The dark feature is a younger sedimentary deposit made of a different material than the light-toned sediments; it covered the lighter rocks after they were eroded to their present form. This area is located near 5.0°S, 89.8°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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