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Bedding Details in Layered Rock

Oct. 16, 2013
This beautiful image shows terrific layers and exposed bedrock along a cliff in west Candor Chasma, which is part of the extensive Valles Marineris canyon system as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

This beautiful image shows terrific layers and exposed bedrock along a cliff in west Candor Chasma, which is part of the extensive Valles Marineris canyon system.

A Context Camera (CTX) image of this area showed that the strata is not entirely horizontal, and that there may be crossed beds, or lenses pinching out, or some other texture/structure that might give a clue as to the depositional setting of the sediment that makes up these layers.

This image shows the area in greater detail and resolution, so we can compare what we have gleaned from CTX and MOC images to develop a better understanding of what we're looking at and how to interpret the past history of the region.

HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the orbiter's HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

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