Martian Surface Geology

A collection of images showcasing various features of Mars' surface, including craters, sedimentary rocks, and seasonal frost formations, highlighting its geological history.

Streaked Slope in a Valley Seen by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Gale Crater is well-known as the landing site of NASA's Curiosity rover, which has explored the northwest crater floor since 2012. But the entire crater is full of fascinating geology, some beyond the rover's reach. This image covers a fan of sedimentary rock on the southeast crater floor. Ridges on the fan surface may be composed of coarse-grained sediment deposited in ancient streams. More recent wind erosion of the surrounding finer sediments could have left these channel deposits elevated in inverted relief. A closeup shows some of these ridges, as well as light-toned layers of sediment exposed along the fan edge. The fan is also punctured by scattered circular impact craters. One of these craters appears to have a circular deposit of sedimentary rock filling its floor, suggesting that it formed during the span of time that streams were active here. Features like this help scientists to infer the geologic history of the region.

When we acquired this image, it was northern summer and southern winter on Mars, but signs of spring are already starting to appear at latitudes not far from the equator. This image of Penticton Crater, taken at latitude 38 degrees south, shows streamers of seasonal carbon dioxide ice (dry ice) only remaining in places in the terrain that are still partially in the shade. The turquoise-colored frost (enhanced color) is protected from the sun in shadowed dips in the ground while the sunlit surface nearby is already frost-free.

Streaked Slope in a Valley Seen by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Bigbee is a 21 kilometer-diameter impact crater located on the northern rim of Holden crater in southern Margaritifer Terra, a region on Mars that is well known for its long record of water-rich activity as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows part of an unnamed crater, itself located inside the much larger Newton Crater, in Terra Sirenum. Original release date March 3, 2010.

Recurring slope lineae are active flows on warm Martian slopes that might be caused by seeping water. One of the most active sites known is in the central peaks of Hale Crater as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

With NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE camera and its powerful resolution, other mission teams can request images of potential future landing sites on Mars.

This channelized area is near the source region of the huge outflow channel, Ares Vallis. It was at the distal end or 'long-ways down-river-area' where the Pathfinder/Sojourner mission landed on 4 July 1997.

SP Crater, a volcanic cone and flow in Arizona, is visible in this image obtained in 2001. Satellite image.

This image shows the west-facing side of an impact crater in the mid-latitudes of Mars' northern hemisphere. HiRISE.

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft covers some of the plains south of Capri Chasma in eastern Valles Marineris.

Gullies are common on steep slopes of many impact craters on Mars. When gullies were first observed, there was a lot of excitement surrounding them because similar features form on Earth through the action of liquid water. However, liquid water is currently unstable on the surface of Mars. Long-term observations have prompted many scientists to question a liquid water origin for the gullies, and alternative ideas have been suggested. These include flows of salt-rich (briny) water, as the salt would allow water to be liquid under lower temperatures than those for pure water. Also dry processes, which do not require the action of liquid water at all. Monitoring of gullies by HiRISE could help scientists better understand the conditions where the gullies are active, and in doing so, help understand how they form.

Wind Effects on Martian Soil

Streaked Slope in a Valley Seen by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

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This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows mounds of light-toned deposits within the central portion of Valles Marineris.

This image is located on the southeastern flank of a volcano on Mars called Arsia Mons. On the eastern side of the image, the lobate margin of an old lava flow is visible among brighter tones. The upstanding rims of several degraded impact craters are also visible. In the detailed cutout, we can see that the bright tones are erosion resistant outcrops, likely from dust that has accumulated and been sculpted by the wind. (The small crater on the left of the cutout is 70 meters across.) Arsia Mons is a shield volcano with a relatively low slope and a massive caldera at its summit.

The deep chasm that formed on the polar cap edge is identified as an area of strong down-slope winds and has a clear connection to Mars' largest dune field, Olympia Undae as observed by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The southern section of Cydonia Region is dominated by both a series of craters and the remnants of channels that may be from a past fluvial system as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

STS103-728-022 (19-27 December 1999)--- One of the astronauts aboard the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Discovery used a handheld 70mm camera to photograph the Tifernine dunes (note, the dunes are below the "beak" of sandstone rock). According to NASA scientists studying the STS-103 photo collection, the dunes were created when the dark sandstone rocks trapped sand. Winds, they continued, then piled the sand into dunes up to 457.2 m (1,500 ft). The color of the sandstone is due to a desert varnish, the scientists reported. The varnish is composed of manganese, iron oxides, hydroxides, and clay minerals, they said.

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a landscape that is pervasively eroded, right up to the tops of the ridges, with channels extending down into depositional fans much like alluvial fans in the Mojave Desert.

This view combines information from two instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to map color-coded composition over the shape of the ground in a small portion of the Nili Fossae plains region of Mars' northern hemisphere.

Sediments rich in hydrated sulfates may have filled central Valles Marineris, but debates persist as to how these deposits grew or formed. If they formed from deposition in a deep lake then the layers should be nearly horizontal. If the layers formed from airfall deposits such as volcanic pyroclastics or windblown dust, then the layers should drape over the pre-existing topography. Another possibility is that the layers were deformed by slumping. Stereo topographic data can be used to test these hypotheses. The cutout shows an area at full resolution. There are no detectable color variations within these layers, suggesting a uniform composition or the presence of a thin cover of dust over all surfaces.

Candor Chasma in central Valles Marineris is filled with light-toned layered deposits thought to be sandstones, perhaps formed in an ancient wet and potentially habitable environment. The CRISM instrument on MRO has acquired thousands high-resolution spectral images across Mars, often with simultaneous coverage by HiRISE, but sometimes, for a variety of reasons, without HiRISE coverage. We are now trying to complete coordinated coverage over such locations, to enable geologic interpretations based on both the compositional information of CRISM and the high-resolution imaging of HiRISE.

$This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows some interesting fractured materials on the floor of an impact crater in Arabia Terra.$

This computer-generated view based on multiple orbital observations shows Mars' Gale crater. NASA is considering Gale as a possible landing site for the Mars Science Laboratory mission.

A Wrinkle Ridge in Solis Planum Seen by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

'Megabreccia' is a term used to describe jumbled, fragmented blocks of rock larger than 1 meter (1.09 yard) across. This image was observed by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

This image captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter covers some high-standing topography just outside the rim of an impact crater about 30 kilometers (19 miles) in diameter near a Martian hill named Zephyria Tholus.

This image shows a layered deposit in Galle Crater, located in the Southern cratered highlands, as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Gullies at the Edge of Hale Crater

This observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows light-toned layered deposits at the contact between the Ladon Valles channel and Ladon Basin.

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the central peak in Porter Crater. Southward on the slopes below the peak is a large dune field.

HiRISE plays an important role in finding suitable landing sites for future rover missions. Scientists have narrowed down the candidate landing sites for the upcoming European ExoMars rover mission to two regions the plains of Oxia and Mawrth Vallis. Images covering these areas aid scientists in picking a location that will be both scientifically interesting and a safe place to land and operate. HiRISE pictures help to assess the risk for each particular location so that a final landing site can be selected. If you look very closely, the image may appear hazy. This is due to additional dust lingering in the atmosphere from the massive summer global dust storm at the time we acquired this observation. ExoMars is due to launch to Mars in 2020.

Branched Features on the Floor of Antoniadni Crater

The North Polar region of Mars is capped with layers of water ice and dust, called the 'polar layered deposits.' This permanent polar cap is covered in the winter with a layer of seasonal carbon dioxide ice as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Near the lower left corner of this view is the three-petal lander platform that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit drove off in January 2004. The lander is still bright, but with a reddish color, probably due to accumulation of Martian dust.

Mars digital-image mosaic merged with color of the MC-28 quadrangle, Hellas region of Mars. This image is from NASA's Viking Orbiter 1.

Going with the Flow. Harmakhis Vallis is an approximately 800-kilometer long outflow channel located in eastern Hellas. The valley probably formed by a combination of surface collapse and flowing water. The edges of Harmakhis Vallis were enlarged by material slumping off the walls, and it was later filled with ice-rich material, similar to glaciers on Earth. This image shows part of the valley floor that filled with glacial ice. Can you see the parallel ridges on some of the glaciers that show how the ice flowed downhill, around and between obstacles https //photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25707

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a wonderful case of aeolian sandstone that preserves its original sand dune bedform shapes and lies unconformably over a previously-eroded surface of layered sedimentary rock.

NASA's Cassini orbiter has revealed many surprises within the Saturn system, including the possible presence of a ring of debris surrounding the ancient heavily cratered surface of Rhea, Saturn's second largest moon.

A close-up image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of a recent 150-meter diameter impact crater near Amazonis Mensa and Medusae Fossae is another great example of geologic complexity of Mars. The spider web-like texture of this crater is intriguing. But what does it mean On Earth, we have many geologic mechanisms that embrace the surface of the planet in an almost constant state of metamorphosis. Although Mars is not nearly as geologically active as Earth, it is still a host to many processes that shape its surface even today (e.g., aeolian modification, periglacial processes, recent impacts, etc.). The appearance of the ejecta of this crater is likely a combination of both the characteristics of the target material it was deposited on, and processes that modified and degraded it over time. When we look to other images in this region we find a similar texture. This texture is referred to as yardangs” by scientists who study wind erosion. Yardangs are streamlined ridge-and-trough

Epidermal hamartoma of the face in a 24-year-old man

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the funnel-shaped terminus of Lethe Vallis, a winding channel in the Elysium Planitia region of Mars; the floor is covered in solidified lava and blanketed by a thin layer of light-toned dust.

A sinuous ridge is a thin and meandering formation that gives the appearance of a stream channel, but stays raised above the surface rather than incised into it. It is believed that these ridges were once stream channels that cut down into the surface. Flowing water can have a number of effects on a channel bed, such as sorting grains and depositing rocks, all while removing loose material. The water can also carry a number of dissolved minerals that become deposited and cement the remaining grains together. The result is a stream bed that has become armored. Once the stream stops flowing and dries up, this armored layer can resist future erosion. Over the millions of years that follow, forces such as wind can gradually remove the original material of the surrounding terrain, but the stream bed can remain. Examining the characteristics of the ridge can reveal clues about the amount of water and the flow speed that existed long ago.

The objective of this observation by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was to examine the edge of impact ejecta from a crater to the north-west of this area (north is up, west is to the left).

This image shows a variety of wind-related features near the center of Gamboa Crater. Larger sand dunes form sinuous crests and individual domes. There are tiny ripples on the tops of the dunes, only several feet from crest-to-crest. These merge into larger mega-ripples about 30 feet apart that radiate outward from the dunes. The larger, brighter formations that are roughly parallel are called Transverse Aeolian Ridges (TAR). These TAR are covered with very coarse sand. (More details are described in a paper by Day and Zimbelman.) The mega-ripples appear blue-green on one side of an enhanced color cutout while the TAR appear brighter blue on the other. This could be because the TAR are actively moving under the force of the wind, clearing away darker dust and making them brighter. All of these different features can indicate which way the wind was blowing when they formed. Being able to study such variety so close together allows us to see their relationships and compare and contrast f

Acquired on April 1, 2018, this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Aram Chaos, a 280 kilometer-diameter ancient impact crater that lies within in the Southern Highlands of Mars. Uplifted blocks of light-toned layers, composed largely of the iron-oxide hematite and water-altered silicates, indicate that this crater once held a lake. Scientists suggest that these enormous flood channels were carved quickly within just weeks or months by catastrophic outflows of groundwater over 2.5 billion years ago from beneath Aram Chaos and nearby regions. Today dark (basaltic) dunes fill most of the low regions and the etched areas of the uplifted blocks obscure much of the original crater floor. Aram Chaos is located near the headwaters of Ares Vallis, a large outflow channel system that extends about 1700 kilometers towards the northwest across the ancient cratered highlands before emptying into the Northern Lowlands at Chryse Planitia near the Mars Pathfinder landing site. More in

As rivers age they can meander and occasionally these meanders get so pronounced that the river cuts off these curving loops at their narrow end leaving them as isolated as oxbow lakes. Image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

This perspective view from NASA's Cassini orbiter shows the western half of Rhea's second largest impact basin, Tirawa. The broad arcuate scarp cutting across scene center is the battered rim of Tirawa.

This observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is of one many that highlights new discoveries; one of these is that many sand dunes and ripples are moving, some at rates of several meters per year.

This image of a southern mid-latitude crater was intended to investigate the lineated material on the crater floor. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveals a landscape peppered by small impact craters.

Juventae Chasma is a giant box canyon, yet a relatively small segment of the enormous Valles Marineris system, seen here by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

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This image taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows gullies in a semi-circular trough in Noachis Terra. The gullies are observed to face all directions.

This enhanced-color image from the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a landscape of sand dunes and buttes among a background of light-toned bands and dark-toned bands in the Candor Chasma region

Ethiopia, Erta Ale range, Afar Region. Small volcanic craters and cones run along tectonic fault lines in an approximate north-south direction from Erta Ale.

Map of Perseverance's Delta Top Campaign. This map shows the planned route NASA's Perseverance Mars rover will take across the top of Jezero Crater's delta in 2023. The rover's planned route is in black, with black dots representing notional waypoints for science or sampling along the way, while the ground it already covered is in white. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis miss

Terrain on Olympus Mons Seen by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Southern spring on Mars brings sublimation of the seasonal dry ice polar cap as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

This region of Xanthe Terra has mostly been contracted due to thrust faulting, but this local region shows evidence of extensional faulting, also called normal faulting. This observation is from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

This area, on the western edge of Milankovic Crater on Mars, has a thick deposit of sediment that covers a layer rich in ice. The ice is not obvious unless you look in color. In the red-green-blue images that are close to what the human eye would see, the ice looks bright white, while the surroundings are a rusty red. The ice stands out even more clearly in the infrared-red-blue images where it has a striking bluish-purple tone while the surroundings have a yellowish-grey color. The ice-rich material is most visible when the cliff is oriented east-west and is shielded from the sun as it arcs through the sky to the south.

Mars digital-image mosaic merged with color of the MC-11 quadrangle, Oxia Palus region of Mars. This image is from NASA's Viking Orbiter 1.

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Mars digital-image mosaic merged with color of the MC-23 quadrangle, Aeolis region of Mars. This image is from NASA's Viking Orbiter 1.

This image, acquired by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, in southern winter over part of Asimov Crater, shows the crater appears to have been completely filled by a thick sequence of materials, perhaps including sediments and lava flows.

This mosaic of Syrtis Major is composed of about 100 red- and violet- filter NASA Viking Orbiter images, digitally mosaiced in an orthographic projection at a scale of 1 km/pixel.

The ability of a sophisticated radar instrument to image large regions of the world from space, using different frequencies that can penetrate dry sand cover, produced the discovery in this image: a previously unknown branch of an ancient river.

The Martian north polar layered deposits are an ice sheet much like the Greenland ice sheet on the Earth in this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This Martian ice sheet contains many layers that record variations in the Martian climate.

Recurring slope lineae (RSL) may be due to active seeps of water. These dark flows are abundant along the steep slopes of ancient bedrock in Coprates Chasma as seen in this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

A Wrinkle Ridge in Solis Planum Seen by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

This enhanced color composite image, made with data from the framing camera aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows the area around Ernutet crater. The bright red portions appear redder with respect to the rest of Ceres.

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This observance from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a formation of large outflow channels on Mars' Aureum Chaos.

This image from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover reveals details of a bedrock discoloration pattern at a site between 'Marias Pass' and 'Bridger Basin.' The discoloration is not associated with individual layers.

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft shows a water-carved channel. The channel pattern, called dendritic because of its tree, like branching running down over the rim of an ancient impact basin across the basin floor.

Oblique View of Valles Marineris, Mars, from Viking Orbiter

Hi-Res on Tethys - False Color

This observation from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter covers a portion of the Martian equatorial plains called Elysium Planitia. In this location, lava that was once flowing across the surface interacted with multiple obstructions.

The yellow-white cloud in the bottom-center of this image is a Mars dust tower a concentrated cloud of dust that can be lofted dozens of miles above the surface. The blue-white plumes are water vapor clouds. Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in the solar system, is visible in the upper left corner, while Valles Marineris can be seen in the lower right. Heat-sensitive instruments like the Mars Climate Sounder, carried aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), can map the formation of these dust towers, which form almost continuously during global dust storms. Taken on Nov. 30, 2010, the image was produced by MRO's Mars Color Imager (MARCI), which was built and is operated by Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.

SL3-22-0214 (July-September 1973) --- A vertical view of southeastern Washington State as photographed from Earth orbit by one of the six lenses of the Itek-furnished S190-A Multispectral Photographic Facility Experiment aboard the Skylab space station. The Snake River flows into the Columbia River in the most southerly corner of the picture. The Wallula Lake is below the junction of the two rivers. The Yakima Valley is at the southwestern edge of the photograph. The Columbia Basin is in the center of the picture. The Cascade Range extends across the northwest corner of the photograph. This picture was taken with type SO-356 regular color film. The S190-A experiment is part of the Earth Resources Experiments Package. Federal agencies participating with NASA on the EREP project are the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Corps of Engineers. All EREP photography is available to the public through the Department of Interior s Earth R

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Nili Fossae region of Mars, one of the largest exposures of clay minerals, and a prime candidate landing site for Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity.

Expedition 47 Earth observation composite created with iss047e028742 - iss047e028744135A2099 - 135A2101 Unique structure in Namibia Mt Brandberg Nature Reserve

This image of an outcrop at the 'Sheepbed' locality, taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows well-defined veins filled with whitish minerals, interpreted as calcium sulfate.

This image NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbitershows a prominently stratified transect through the rock of a mountain of material in the middle of Hebes Chasma.

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft is of a landing site that the flattest, safest place on Mars: part of Meridiani Planum, close to where the Opportunity rover landed.

Becquerel Crater is one of several impact craters in Arabia Terra, on Mars, that have light-toned layered deposits along the crater floor. The light-toned deposits are particularly striking to look at in this HiRISE image because they are stacked together to produce a thick sequence of layered beds. The layers appear to be only a few meters thick and show little variations in thickness. Some of the layering in the image appears dark, probably due to deposition of basalt sand along flatter surfaces rather than any compositional variations in the layer beds themselves. Faults can also be seen displacing portions of the layered beds. The surface of the light-toned deposit is not smooth but instead appears disrupted into polygonal cracks and blocks.

This enhanced color image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows what are called recurring slope lineae s in Tivat Crater. The narrow, dark flows descend downhill (towards the upper left). Analysis shows that the flows all end at approximately the same slope, which is similar to the angle of repose for sand. RSL are mostly found on steep rocky slopes in dark regions of Mars, such as the southern mid-latitudes, Valles Marineris near the equator, and in Acidalia Planitia on the northern plains. The appearance and growth of these features resemble seeping liquid water, but how they form remains unclear, and this research demonstrated that the RSL flows seen by HiRISE are likely moving granular material like sand and dust. These findings indicate that present-day Mars may not have a significant volume of liquid water. The water-restricted conditions that exist on Mars would make it difficult for Earth-like life to exist near the surface of the planet. The map is projected here

After a rocket-powered descent stage, also known as the sky crane, delivered NASA's Curiosity rover to Mars on Aug. 5, 2012, it flew away and fell to the surface.

Paua Abalone Shell (Haliotis iris), inner layer formed by crysallized calcium, NZ

This false color Magellan image shows a portion of Eistla Regio (region) in the northern hemisphere of Venus.

This image taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows the texture of the patch of flat-lying bedrock called 'Cumberland,' which was the mission's second target for use of the rover's sample-collecting drill.

Aerial view of astronaut drawing, Nazca Lines, Peru

Aerolite, meteorite

petroglyph, Aït Ouazik rock deposit, late Neolithic, Morocco, Africa.

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft shows numerous branching ridges with various degrees of sinuosity. These branching forms resemble tributaries funneling and draining into larger channel trunks towards the upper portion.

As the Space Shuttle Atlantis flew over the Indonesian archipelago on Saturday, Sept. 27, 1997, middle school students across the country used NASA's Kidsat camera to photograph the fires and smoke that blanket the island of Sumatra.

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows dunes on the floor of Herschel Crater. Steep faces ('slipfaces') are oriented downwind, in the direction of motion of the dunes. A dune-free area downwind of the crater is seen at the image center.

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This image comes from observations of Newton crater by the HiRISE camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The features that extend down the slope during warm seasons are called recurring slope lineae.

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