Bright Slope Streaks on Dark Slopes in Bahram Vallis
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona
Bright Slope Streaks on Dark Slopes in Bahram Vallis
PSP_007653_2010  Science Theme: Mass Wasting Processes
This image reveals bright slope streaks in Bahram Vallis, a long sinuous valley that winds across northeastern Lunae Planum and Xanthe Terra to the circum-Chyrse basin.

Typically, dark and light-toned slope streaks appear together on light-toned slopes. This scene is a rare case in which only bright streaks are visible on a dark surface. Slope streaks generally start at a point source and widen downslope as a single streak or branch into multiple streaks. Some of the slope streaks show evidence that downslope movement is being diverted around obstacles, such as large boulders, and a few appear to originate at boulders or clumps of rocky material.

Many hypotheses have been proposed for the formation of slope streaks including dry avalanching, geochemical weathering, liquid stains or flows, and moisture wickering. Recent observations from HiRISE images have revealed that the interior of slope streaks is lower in elevation than the surroundings indicating that material must have been removed and then deposited in the formation of the streak.

Slope streak formation is among the few known processes currently active on Mars. Where they appear together, dark slope streaks cross cut and lie on top of the older and lighter-toned streaks leading to the belief that lighter-toned streaks are dark streaks that have lightened with time as new dust settled on their surface. Over the course of several years, MOC images from this region did not reveal any new dark or light-toned slope streaks suggesting that streak formation is not currently active here. HiRISE can continue to monitor this region for new slope streaks and changes in tone of old streaks.

Written by: Maria Banks  (2 April 2008)
 
Acquisition date
14 March 2008

Local Mars time
14:50

Latitude (centered)
20.953°

Longitude (East)
303.208°

Spacecraft altitude
283.8 km (176.4 miles)

Original image scale range
28.6 cm/pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects ~86 cm across are resolved

Map projected scale
25 cm/pixel and North is up

Map projection
Equirectangular

Emission angle
8.0°

Phase angle
48.0°

Solar incidence angle
40°, with the Sun about 50° above the horizon

Solar longitude
45.0°, Northern Spring

For non-map projected images
North azimuth:  97°
Sub-solar azimuth:  8.2°
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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.