Mars Geological Features

A collection of grey-scale images showcasing Martian landscapes, including lava tubes, craters, and dunes, revealing diverse geological processes.

Venus - Comparison of Venera and Magellan Resolutions

Lava Tubes of Olympus

Dunes in Herschel Crater (Herschel Crater: 15.7 S, 228.8 W)

Mars Shoreline Tests: Contact between Lycus Sulci and Amazonis Planitia

This image was acquired on July 22, 2018 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Mars has recently been enveloped in dusty haze, but the sensitivity of HiRISE enabled imaging of surface features through a moderate level of haze. This image shows a fresh impact crater in the northern middle latitudes. A technique called pixel binning was needed to improve the signal, but it is still the highest-resolution image ever acquired at this location. Pixel binning combines information of adjacent detectors in a CCD camera sensor to create one single pixel in the recorded image.

This radar image of Titan shows Ganesa Macula, interpreted as a cryovolcano (ice volcano), and its surroundings. Cryovolcanism is thought to have been an important process on Titan and may still be happening today

Craters and Bright Dunes of Isidis Planitia

Chaotic Terrain on Europa in Very High Resolution

Isidis Dust Devil

Craters and Wind Streaks

Venus - Comparison of Venera and Magellan Resolutions

Chasma Boreale Dunes

Martian Flows

Isidis Planitia Features

Pavonis Slope Streaks

Strange Surfaces of Hellas Planitia

This MOC image shows partially-filled collapse pits on the eastern flank of Alba Patera, a large volcano in northern Tharsis

Herschel's Dunes

Chukhung is a 45 kilometer-diameter, central pit crater in Tempe Terra, having likely formed 3 billion years ago. The southern portion of the crater floor hosts a large viscous flow feature that is hypothesized to be a glacier. There are sinuous ridges that emanate from the margin of the flow feature toward the center of the crater. These ridges could be evidence of glacial meltwater preserved in the form of eskers, inverted channels formed when the softer sediments surrounding the channel deposits are eroded away. It is unclear whether the conditions for wet-based glaciation ever existed on Mars, but these ridges could be evidence that it once did.

Northern Impact

This compressed resolution radar mosaic from NASA's Magellan spacecraft shows a 600 kilometers (360 mile) segment of the longest channel discovered on Venus in 1990.

A portion of a chain of impact craters on Jupiter's moon Callisto is seen in this image taken by the Galileo spacecraft on November 4, 1996. This crater chain on Callisto is believed to result from the impact of a split object, similar to the fragments

A vast dune field lies near the northern polar cap of Mars. Seen here in summer, the dunes have partially buried an impact crater about 1,000 (3,300 feet) wide. This image is from NASA's Mars Odyssey.

Crater in Utopia

This image shows four relatively bright mounds along a linear, curving feature that appears to be a rift zone, where the shallow surface materials have pulled apart. The mounds also appear to be deformed. A possible geologic interpretation is that as the rift began to open, subsurface material (perhaps mud) erupted to create the mounds, which were then deformed as the rift continued to spread. This region (Chryse Planitia) is a low-elevation basin in which large outflow channels deposited water and sediments billions of years ago.

$This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a complicated area containing various types of channels, pits and fractures near Olympica Fossae.$

Arsia Mons Collapse Pits in IR

Dust Devil Art

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spies a crater that lies close to Elysium, a major volcanic system on Mars. The whole region surrounding the crater was at some point covered by lava from the volcano creating vast lava plains.

Arabia's Auqakuh Vallis

Banded Terrain in East Hellas

This MOC image shows dusty terrain near the west rim of Malea Patera, located southwest of Hellas Planitia

Exhuming Platy Plains

Hill In Deuteronilus

This computer generated photomosaic from NASA's Mariner 10 is of the southern half of Mercury's Shakespeare Quadrangle, named for the ancient Shakespeare crater located on the upper edge to the left of center.

This image, from an animation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a dark, rippled sand dune overlying bright-toned rock.

Grooves and Craters on Ganymede

This radar image of the Washington, D.C. area demonstrates the capability of imaging radar as a useful tool for urban planners and managers to map and monitor land use patterns.

In an Instant!

Impact Crater with Ejecta Blanket

Europa Ridges, Hills and Domes

The Bürg Crater, the debris piles and outcropping wall material, with strong variations in reflectance.

This image was obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on July 4, 2018 from an altitude of about 30 miles (48 kilometers). The center of this picture is located at about 18.5 degrees north latitude and 240.5 degrees east longitude.

Terra Cimmeria Dunes

Western floor of Giordano Bruno crater.

Folds on Europa

Oozing Across Titan

Becquerel Layers

Second of Two Fresh Impact Crater Sites With Before and After Narrow Angle Mars Orbiter Camera Images

A 'Pot of Gold' Rich with Nuggets (Sol 163-2)

Bouldery Surface

Polar Unconformity

Northern slope inside Robinson crater.

Exhuming Craters

This MOC image shows a nearly ice-free view of layers exposed by erosion in the north polar region. The light-toned patches are remnants of water ice frost

Becquerel's Sediment

A Record of Crustal Movement on Europa

Western Candor Chasma, Valles Marineris

Dark Rays on Mercury

Granicus Valles

Coated Craters

When impact craters are formed, the material that once resided in the subsurface is blown upward and outward, as seen in this observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

East Cerberus

Several dune fields encircle the north polar cap. Hyperboreae Undae is one of them, located near Escorial Crater and Chasma Boreale. This VIS image was taken during the spring season, when the dunes still have some frost cover. Orbit Number 77742 Latitude 77.7492 Longitude 309.689 Instrument VIS Captured 2019-06-24 14 29

Rippled Mars

Ridges in Lycus Sulci. This image shows a group of curved ridges in an area called Lycus Sulci, which is located near the Olympus Mons volcano. Much of the rocks in this area have been subjected to erosion (e.g., scouring and removal) by the wind, so that the surface we see today was originally buried deep underground. Ridges such like these typically form underground through diagenesis, a process where water flows underground and minerals start to form from chemicals within the groundwater. These minerals are typically most abundant in places such as cracks, where the water can easily flow and minerals have room to grow. The mineral-filled cracks are more difficult to erode than the surrounding rocks and thus can form ridges such like these when the weaker surrounding rocks are eroded away. https //photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25950

Wind-Eroded Terrain near Olympus Mons

This MOC image shows the remains of leveed lava channels cutting across (west to east) a dust-covered plain composed of overlapping lava flows east of Olympus Mons

Focus on Guadalupe

Groundwater May be Source for Erosion in Martian Gullies

Mars Polar Lander and Mars Pathfinder Sites Compared

Windblown Dunes on the Floor of Herschel Impact Basin

Diverse Geology

Four Mars Years of South Polar Changes

Troughs Near Ascraeus

Herschel Dunes

Noctus Labyrinthus by Day and Night

Titan, a Geologically Dynamic World

The clouds in this image hide most of the surface. This image was taken during spring in the northern hemisphere of Mars, when cloud cover is common

Island in a Lake on Titan

North Polar Layers, Mars

This daytime infrared image shows part of the dunes and deposit in Richardson Crater. The bright tone is due to the warm temperature of the dunes during the daytime.

Chasma Boreale Dunes

This image, taken by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, shows multiple craters with windstreak 'tails.'

Jupiter's atmospheric circulation is dominated by alternating eastward and westward jets from equatorial to polar latitudes. This image was taken on April 3, 1997, by NASA's Galileo spacecraft.

This image from NASA's Magellan spacecraft is from the southern portion of Navka. In the center of this image are two bright deposits running north to south.

This image was acquired by Voyager 1 as it approached close passage by the south pole of Io, the innermost of the four large Galilean satellites.

Venus - Venera 8 Landing Site in Navka Region

Crater Floor Yardangs

This image from the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the best examples yet seen in Meridiani Planum outcrop rocks of well-preserved, fine-scale layering and what geologists call 'cross-lamination.'

Sand Dunes in Kaiser Crater

Frozen Carbon Dioxide

Volcano

East Arabia Landforms

Ancient Layered Rocks in Schiaparelli Crater

Close-up of Europa's Trailing Hemisphere

This image, with radar illumination from west to east, shows three unusual volcanoes located in the Guinevere Planitia lowland. Magellan.

A Tumultuous Past for Ganymede's Dark Terrain

Glacial (Ice) or Lava Flow. The geologic setting and latitude here suggest this is a glacial (ice-rich) flow, but the surface is broken into plates like many lava flows on Mars. An image was targeted here to get a better look. At the meter-scale resolution of HiRISE, we see a hummocky surface with boulders and craters plus some wind-blown landforms that seems consistent with either the glacial or lava hypothesis. This is a common result getting a higher-resolution image doesn't necessarily provide more information about large-scale processes, instead providing information about how the surface has been modified. https //photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25794

Troughs in Tharsis

Secondary Craters

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