Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Broken Sedimentary Rocks

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1095, 18 May 2005


NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows broken-up blocks of sedimentary rock in western Candor Chasma. There are several locations in western Candor that exhibit this pattern of broken rock. The manner in which these landforms were created is unknown; it is possible that there was a landslide or a meteoritic impact that broke up the materials. One attribute that is known: in some of these cases, it seems that the rock was broken and then buried by later sedimentary rocks, before later being exhumed so that they can be seen from orbit today.
Location near: 6.9°S, 75.5°W
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi)
Illumination from: upper left
Season: Southern Winter

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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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