Martian Geological Features

Images depicting the surface of Mars, including lava flows, cracks, and geological formations.

Cracks in Utopia

Martian Lava Flows

Cracks in Utopia

This image demonstrates the curious phenomenon called topographic inversion. The southern half of the picture is covered by a well-preserved lava flow. The flow stops just at the brink of descending a steep slope. Lava isn't afraid of falling, so what happened here It is likely that the terrain to the north was once higher, and stopped the lava from flowing any further. Once the lava cooled, it protected the ground beneath it, while the softer rocks to the north continued to erode, inverting the topography so that what was once low-lying ground is now the top of a mesa.

Bedforms in Maja Valles

Knob in Propontis

The striking feature in this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a boulder-covered landslide along a canyon wall. Landslides occur when steep slopes fail, sending a mass of soil and rock to flow downhill, leaving a scarp atop the slope.

This image is of a portion of the Southern plains region within Hellas, the largest impact basin on Mars, with a diameter of about 2300 kilometers (1400 miles), as observed by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Inverted Channels

Lycus Sulci Terrain

Flows of Ascraeus

A large new crater, seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, appear slightly asymmetric in shape, and measures 159 x 143 feet (48.5 x 43.5 meters) in diameter, making it the largest new crater detected on Mars by MRO to date.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter sees ice-rich mantling deposits accumulate from the atmosphere in the Martian mid-latitudes in cycles during periods of high obliquity.

Polygons near Lyot Crater

Gullies in Crater

Channels on Bakhuysen Crater Wall

In this image, obtained by the framing camera on NASA's Dawn spacecraft, various craters are visible in the southern equatorial region of the giant asteroid Vesta.

Debris flow extending down the southwest wall of Janssen K crater.

Many different surface textures are found on the polar caps. This image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows part of the surface of the south polar cap.

Chain of Pits on Pavonis Mons

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows impact craters.

9 March 2005 This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a trough in the Labyrinthus Noctis region. Location near 1.5°S, 92.5°W Image width ~3 km (~1.9 mi) Illumination from upper left Season Southern Winter http //photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07449

Tractus Catena Pits

Flows on Olympus Mons

South Melea Planum, By The Dawn's Early Light

Arsia Mons Overlapping Flows

Hebes Chasma #1

Sinuous Ridges in Argyre Basin

This full-resolution image from NASA's Magellan spacecraft shows the northern part of the Akna Montes (mountains) of Venus.

Ladon Sedimentary Rocks

Martian Scribbles

During the 2018 Mars dust storm, we obtained a clear view of the summit of the giant volcano Elysium Mons. We see the western rim and floor of the caldera, and a chain of pits (called a catena ) extending from the caldera towards the north. The chain of pits likely formed by volcanic processes, such as the collapse of a lava tube after it drained. Or by a tectonic process, such as a rift in the rocks below that drained loose material from the surface. An unexpected feature of this catena is the presence of avalanches in two of the pits (marked A and B in the cutout, with the uphill direction towards the top of the image.) The flows in both pits could be ancient, produced during the formation of the catena, but they are not found in the other pits in the chain. They might have formed more recently by the collapse of steep dust deposits like those in a degraded crater to the left of the catena.

Exposed Crater

This MOC image shows a chain of collapse pits on a dust-mantled, lava-covered plain northeast of Ascraeus Mons -- one of the giant volcanoes located in the Tharsis region of Mars

Martian Gullies

Exposing Memnonia Terrain

Medusae Fossae Formation

Candor Chasma - Massive (non-layered) Material Expos

This image was taken of the hills that resulted from uplifted rocks due to an impact that formed the 230-kilometer diameter Galle Crater. These hills form a segment of a circle known as a peak ring and this particular formation makes Galle Crater look like a smiley face from orbit. Small gullies, visible in the center of this image, have formed on the flanks of these hills and they have eroded back into the bedrock. The crater itself is probably billions of years old, yet these gullies are likely only hundreds of thousands of years old and may even be active today. The small channels in these gullies are easily erased by the wind over long time periods, so we know these gullies must have been active recently.

High-Resolution South Polar Cap Mosaics

Isidis Planitia

Mesas and Troughs

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spies an impact crater located in northern Sinus Meridiani has formed along the boundary of two different terrain units.

Martian Gullies

This visible-light image, taken by NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft, indicates that gullies on Martian crater walls may be carved by liquid water melting from remnant snow packs.

Top of Olympus Mons

Close up view of the central peak of Aristarchus crater.

A delicate pattern, like that of a spider web, appears on top of the Mars residual polar cap, after the seasonal carbon-dioxide ice slab has disappeared

This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows warm dunes are brighter than their surroundings in this infrared image of an unnamed crater in Noachis Terra.

Olympus Mons Lava Flows

Layers of Cratered Highland Bedrock Exposed in Amenthes Slope

South Polar Layers

This IR image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows a dune field on the floor of an unnamed crater in Noachis Terra. The bright tone indicates the dunes are warmer than most of the material surrounding them.

Cerberus Fossae Pits

Evidence for Recent Liquid Water on Mars: South-facing Walls of Nirgal Vallis

This daytime IR image from shows NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft part of the dune field on the floor of Rabe Crater. The dunes show up as brighter than the surrounding materials because they are warmer.

Multiple processes, which may have occurred billions of years apart, are reflected in this HiRISE image of Aeolis Planum. Cutting across the scene are curvilinear ridges. These likely represent ancient, meandering river channels that flowed across the surface and buried themselves over time. The channels have subsequently been exposed to the surface by the wind, forming the cross-cutting ridges. Approximately north-south across the image are a series of linear ridges called yardangs, which are streamlined landforms that also form due to wind-driven erosion. The orientation of the yardangs reflects the prevailing wind direction when they formed. Both sets of ridges emerged from the preferential removal of softer bedrock by the wind.

Layers in Shalbatana Vallis

On Mars, alluvial fans are sometimes visible in impact crater basins, as material from the steep rims is transported radially inward to the relatively flat floor. This image is from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

This vent and associated flow are located at the base of Arsia Mons

Fractured Ground

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows the floor and walls of a small portion of Nirgal Vallis. The floor is covered by large windblown ripples

This MOC image shows several small, dark sand dunes and a small crater within a much larger crater (not visible in this image). The floor of the larger crater is rough and has been eroded with time

Gullies in a Crater Wall in Newton Basin:

Lonely Butte

At several locations in the southern hemisphere there are craters that have been filled with material almost to the top of the crater rim. What the material is and where it came from are still open questions, and may not even be the same process from crater to crater. In several of these filled craters there are canyon like features where the fill material has been removed or eroded. Sometimes the depressions parallel the crater rim, but in other cases the depression is in the center of the crater and is usually linear. A ring of gullies encircle the top of the depression in this crater. This unnamed crater is located in southern Noachis Terra. Orbit Number 74984 Latitude -68.5481 Longitude 1.57599 Instrument VIS Captured 2018-11-09 10 35

This image of Miranda, Uranus' moon, was acquired by NASA's Voyager 2 on Jan. 24, 1986. Miranda displays a dramatically varied surface. Well shown are numerous ridges and valleys -- a topography that was probably produced by compressional tectonics.

This image was obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on July 5, 2018 from an altitude of about 26 miles (43 kilometers). The center of this picture is located at about 15.1 degrees north latitude and 241.2 degrees east longitude.

Cerberus Fossae Trough

This MOC image shows a flow or landslide feature on a hillslope facing north (toward top/upper right) that is buried on both ends

Exhumed Arabian Crater

Complex Floor Deposits Within Western Ganges Chasma, Valles Marineris

This image was obtained by NASA's Dawn spacecraft on August 2, 2018 from an altitude of about 130 miles (210 kilometers). The center of this picture is located at about 16.1 degrees north latitude and 243.7 degrees east longitude.

Last

Gullied Martian Slope

The small, individual dunes in this image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft are located in an unnamed crater in Noachis Terra.

Dust-covered Flow

Crater with Windstreak

Labou Vallis

$The fracture is this image cuts right through a hill, indicating tremendous tectonic stresses were at work to create this feature.$

Exhuming Craters

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows an elongated depression from three merged craters. The raised rims and ejecta indicate that these are impact craters rather than collapse or volcanic landforms. The pattern made by the ejecta and the craters suggest this was a highly oblique (low angle to the surface) impact, probably coming from the west. There may have been three major pieces flying in close formation to make this triple crater.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captures a debris flow extending down the southwest wall of Janssen K crater.

Marte Vallis Platy Flows

Hephaestus Fossae

$Today's VIS image is shows a small portion of Tempe Fossae. The fossae are graben comprised of paired, parallel fractures with a down-dropped block of material between the fracture set. This morphology is created by extensional tectonic stresses. This image is located in a region of Tempe Terra that is complexly fractured. The complete fossae system in almost 2000 km (1242 miles) long. Orbit Number 80189 Latitude 39.8621 Longitude 286.175 Instrument VIS Captured 2020-01-12 02 09$

Solar Power

This image captured by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft illustrates the complex surface of the polar cap, featuring not just different surface textures, but ridges and valleys as well.

This MOC image shows a portion of a trough cutting across a dust-covered plain in the Labeatis Fossae region of Mars. Boulders derived from the layered exposures near the top of the trough walls are resting on the floor

Crater in Daedalia

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) picture shows a mesa in the Avernus Colles region of Mars, near 3.9°S, 190.8°W, August 25, 2003

Sand Dunes of Schaeberle Crater

Viking Lander 2 (Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Station) Imaged from Orbit

East Tharsis Pit Chain

It's hard to see in the dark. Most HiRISE images are are taken when the sun is at least 15 degrees above the horizon. (If you hold your hand at arm's length with fingers together, it's about five degrees wide on average.) However, to see what's going on in winter, we need to look at times and places where the Sun is just barely over the horizon. This image was taken to look at seasonal frost in gullies during southern winter on Mars, with the Sun only about two degrees over the horizon (just before sunset). To make things more difficult, the gullies are on a steep slope facing away from the sun, so they are in deep shadow. Under these conditions, HiRISE takes what are called bin 4 images. This means that the image shows less detail, but by adding up the light from 16 pixels (a 4x4 square) we can see details in shadows. Even with the reduced resolution, we can see plenty of detail in the gullies, and learn about the seasonal frost. http //photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20480

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft is of a morphologically fresh and simple impact crater in the Hellespontus region; it has a simple bowl shape and raised crater rim.

Post-impact Modification of Klute W

This is a stereo image pair of crater Goeppert-Mayer obtained by NASA's Magellan radar mapping mission.

Cracked Plain, Buried Craters

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