Light-Toned Deposits along Coprates Chasma Slopes

Valles Marineris contains kilometers-thick light-toned layered sedimentary deposits along many of its floors. In this image, similar light-toned layered deposits are observed, except these are found along steeper wallrock slopes in Coprates Chasma.

Compositional data from CRISM and also stereo images -- which we use to create 3D images -- can help scientists determine how these sediments were deposited and if they are the same as the thicker deposits seen along the chasma floors.

This is a stereo pair with ESP_034975_1670.

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.