Wednesday, February 15, 2012

NASA Mars HiRISE: Uplifted Jumble of Ancient Bedrock

Impact craters larger than a certain size have complex forms, including central peaks or other structures that result from structural uplift of the target material.

This provides a mechanism for exposing deep, ancient bedrock.

The enhanced-color subimage shows a great variety of colors and textures in the bedrock, where it is exposed from beneath a dark fine-grained mantle. The mantle is sometimes modified by the wind into dunes.

The bedrock here includes massive, layered, and broken-up (brecciated) areas. This crater is located in the volcanic plains between Argyre Planitia and Valles Marineris.

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