Glaciation at the Eastern Hellas Margin

Hellas Crater in the ancient highlands contains some of the clearest evidence on Mars for glacial processes. This image, on the eastern margin of the giant impact crater, shows a number of features consistent with glaciation.

There are roughly north-south running ridges and troughs which mark the deposition of sediment called moraine underneath or beside a glacier. There are also sinuous channels which may formed from meltwater underneath a glacier. A small (3.5 x 3.5 kilometer) cutout shows an example of the moraine and meltwater channel.

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