HiRISE | A Crack in Athabasca Valles (ESP_084722_1895)

A Crack in Athabasca Valles

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

A Crack in Athabasca Valles
ESP_084722_1895 Science Theme:

Parts of this shallow fissure in the lava-filled Athabasca Valles are filled with dark, sandy material. The dark-toned (bluish in the enhanced color image) material is considered relatively fresh, because it has not had time to become covered by the ubiquitous light-toned dust that blankets much of Mars’ surface.

It is not clear if this material is being captured in the deeper parts of the fissure as the wind blows across the flat terrain, or if the material is originating from the fissure itself. If it is coming from the fissure, that could indicate some kind of current activity or active erosion. Other clues in this image are small craters, some of which contain similar fresh sandy deposits, while others do not.

More evidence is needed to investigate the origin of the fresh deposits here, such as nearby patterns in windblown sediments, monitoring images at this location, or perhaps a topographic map of this scene to measure the depths of the fissure related to the locations of the deposits.

Written by: Sarah Sutton (27 November 2024)

Acquisition date
22 August 2024

Local Mars time
14:21

Latitude (centered)
9.567°

Longitude (East)
156.719°

Spacecraft altitude
277.3 km (172.4 miles)

Original image scale range
55.6 cm/pixel (with 2 x 2 binning) so objects ~167 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
50 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
3.5°

Phase angle
41.0°

Solar incidence angle
44°, with the Sun about 46° above the horizon

Solar longitude
316.4°, Northern Winter

For non-map projected images
North azimuth: 97°
Sub-solar azimuth: 328.9°

JPEG
Black and white
map projected  non-map

IRB color
map projected  non-map

Merged IRB
map projected

Merged RGB
map projected

RGB color
non-map projected

JP2
Black and white
map-projected   (216MB)

IRB color
map-projected   (61MB)

JP2 EXTRAS
Black and white
map-projected (97MB)
non-map           (141MB)

IRB color
map projected (32MB)
non-map           (123MB)

Merged IRB
map projected (237MB)

Merged RGB
map-projected (228MB)

RGB color
non map           (131MB)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
B&W label
Color label
Merged IRB label
Merged RGB label
EDR products
HiView

NB
IRB: infrared-red-blue
RGB: red-green-blue
About color products (PDF)

Black & white is 5 km across; enhanced color about 1 km
For scale, use JPEG/JP2 black & white map-projected images

USAGE POLICY
All of the images produced by HiRISE and accessible on this site are within the public domain: there are no restrictions on their usage by anyone in the public, including news or science organizations. We do ask for a credit line where possible:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

POSTSCRIPT
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.