Gullies and Ice-Rich Material
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Gullies and Ice-Rich Material
PSP_002066_1425  Science Theme: Fluvial Processes
This observation shows gullies in a crater in the Southern Hemisphere.

Gullies typically form when flowing water has sufficient energy to erode soil and soft rock in a channelized flow. The gullies in this image have narrow, overlapping channels and are deeply incised into the slope. Overlapping channels may suggest multiple flow events on this slope wall.

It is unknown what happened to the water that flowed in these gullies. Some of the water may have evaporated or gradually sublimated into the atmosphere or became incorporated as ice in the gully debris aprons located downslope at their termini.

Sublimation is a process similar to evaporation except that solid ice (instead of liquid water) returns to the atmosphere as a gas. Sublimation is common on Mars because the temperature and pressure are so low on Mars today that liquid water is only rarely stable.

The crater floor is covered in boulders, dunes, and textured material. The boulders are likely a “sublimation lag” that provides evidence that material on the crater floor is, or once was, ice-rich. A sublimation lag forms when ice-rich material sublimates leaving the boulders and rocks behind. It is possible that the boulders on this crater floor represent such a process. The pitted texture around boulders may also be an indicator of ice sublimation.



Written by: Kelly Kolb  (23 May 2007)

This is a stereo pair with PSP_001578_1425.
 
Acquisition date
04 January 2007

Local Mars time
15:41

Latitude (centered)
-36.963°

Longitude (East)
206.953°

Spacecraft altitude
253.0 km (157.3 miles)

Original image scale range
26.1 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~78 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

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Equirectangular

Emission angle
15.0°

Phase angle
81.1°

Solar incidence angle
68°, with the Sun about 22° above the horizon

Solar longitude
161.2°, Northern Summer

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North azimuth:  96°
Sub-solar azimuth:  34.7°
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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.