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Hints of an Ancient Shoreline in Southern Isidis Planitia

Nov. 6, 2013
This area seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is known as the Deuteronilus contact of the Isidis Basin; it has been interpreted as a possible ancient shoreline. There are also suggestions that this contact is of volcanic origin.

This area -- known as the Deuteronilus contact of the Isidis Basin -- has been interpreted as a possible ancient shoreline. There are also suggestions that this contact is of volcanic origin.

One direct benefit of a high resolution image is the ability to monitor the detailed morphology of the contact to help to determine whether this formation is the result of an ocean or of a volcanic filling of the Isidis Basin.

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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