Diverse Deposits in Melas Chasma

This scene includes chaotic deposits with a wide range of colors. The deposits are distinctive with both unique colors and small-scale textures such as fracture patterns.

These are probably sedimentary rocks, transported and deposited in water or air. The original layers may have been jumbled in a landslide. Dark or reddish sand dunes cover some of the bedrock.

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.