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Exhuming Platy Plains

June 2, 2003
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows Cerberus and the Elysium volcanoes on Mars have a platy, textured surface thought to have formed by floods of thick mud or, more likely, very fluid lava.

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-377, 31 May 2003

The vast plains of Mars located south of Cerberus and the Elysium volcanoes have a platy, textured surface thought to have formed by floods of thick mud or, more likely, very fluid lava. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows that the platy plain--which is the darker surface covering most of the northern two-thirds of this picture--is being exhumed from beneath a brighter material. The small ridges in the bright material are yardangs, a landform created by wind erosion. Wind is slowly eroding the bright material away, revealing the darker, platy surface below. This area is located near 4.3°N, 208.5°W. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left/lower left.

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