Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) High Resolution Images:
Sand Dunes and Landslide Debris on the Floor of Hebes Chasma

 

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Release:          MOC2-31A, -31B, -31C, -31D
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Image ID:         563215926.3506
                                                           P035-06
(A)

(A) Regional view of Hebes Chasma. Excerpt from U.S. Geological Survey Mars Digital Image Mosaic, reproduced here (click on image) at a scale of about 540 meters (0.25 miles) per pixel.

(B)

(B) Portion of Viking Orbiter 1 image 645A60, reproduced at full resolution (click on image), about 275 meters (899 feet) per pixel. The outlines of (C) (upper box) and (D) (lower box) are shown. North is up, sun illumination is from the right.

(C)

(C) Subframe-A of MOC image 3506 reproduced at full resolution, about 2 meters/pixel (6 feet/pixel). Picture shows an area approximately 2.3 x 3.6 km (1.4 x 2.2 miles) in size. Image is centered approximately at 0.66°S, 76.03°W. Sun illumination is from lower left.

(D)

(D) Subframe-B of MOC image 3506 reproduced at full resolution, about 2 meters/pixel (6 feet/pixel). Picture shows an area approximately 2.3 x 3.6 km (1.4 x 2.2 miles) in size. Image is centered approximately at 0.80°S, 76.00°W. Sun illumination is from lower left.

You may need to adjust the images for the gamma of your monitor to insure proper viewing.

Note: This MOC image is made available in order to share with the public the excitement of new discoveries being made via the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The image may be reproduced only if the image is credited to "Malin Space Science Systems/NASA". Release of this image does not constitute a release of scientific data. The image and its caption should not be referenced in the scientific literature. Full data releases to the scientific community are scheduled by the Mars Global Surveyor Project and NASA Planetary Data System. Typically, data will be released after a 6 month calibration and validation period.

Click Here for more information on MGS data release and archiving plans.

CAPTION

Sand dunes among landslide debris on the floor of Hebes Chasma. Hebes Chasma is a large, enclosed depression related to the Valles Marineris canyon system (see context images (A) and (B)). The two subframes of MOC image #3506 (C & D) show some of the variety of sand dunes that MOC has revealed on the canyon floor.

The first subframe (C) includes small hills composed of landslide debris from the north wall of Hebes Chasma. Superposed on the debris are two sets of dunes-- some with crests that run generally east-west, and another, darker set of dunes with crests than run approximately north-south.

The second subframe (D) shows a more visually interesting view of additional dark (low albedo) sand dunes on the floor of Hebes Chasma. On the basis of past work with Viking and Mariner Mars data, dark dunes are thought to consist of sand derived from basaltic rocks (e.g., like the black sand beaches in Hawaii, or the dark brown sand dunes near Moses Lake, Washington). The Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer team reported in Science (v. 279, n. 5357, pp. 1692-1698, March 13, 1998) that on this same orbit that the MOC images were obtained, the spectrometer detected possible minerals pyroxene and plagioclase in Hebes Chasma--common minerals in basaltic sands on Earth.

MOC image #3506 was taken on November 5, 1997, at 8:52 AM PST, during Mars Global Surveyor's 35th orbit around Mars.

The two MOC subframes of #3506 were featured in Figure 2 in Malin et al., "Early Views of the Martian Surface from the Mars Orbiter Camera of Mars Global Surveyor," Science, v. 279, no. 5357, pp. 1681-1685.

Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO.

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