Mars: Channels and Aprons in East Gorgonum crater | PIA01038 | ||
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This set of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) pictures provides a vista of martian gullies on the northern wall of a 12-km-wide meteor impact crater east of the Gorgonum Chaos region on the red planet. | ||
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Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems | |||
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![]() View of the whole crater as it appeared in the highest resolution image previously acquired of the area, taken by the Viking 1 orbiter in 1978. The crater has no name and it is located near 37.4°S, 168.0°W. |
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This
set of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) pictures provides
a vista of martian gullies on the northern wall of a 12 kilometer--wide
meteor impact crater east of the Gorgonum
Chaos region on the red planet. The images show close-ups of one of the channels and debris aprons found in the northwestern quarter of the impact crater. Some of the channels in this crater are deeply-entrenched and cut into lighter-toned deposits. The numerous channels and apron deposits indicate that many tens to hundreds of individual events involving the flow of water and debris have occurred here. The channels and aprons have very crisp, sharp relief and there are no small meteor impact craters on them, suggesting that these features are extremely young relative to the 4.5 billion year history of Mars. It is possible that these landforms are still being created by water seeping from the layered rock in the crater wall today. |
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