A One-Kilometer Crater on the Floor of Saheki Crater

This HiRISE image shows several smaller craters that formed on the floor of Saheki Crater, an 85-kilometer diameter impact crater north of Hellas Basin.

The western portion of this crater is covered by alluvial fan-like deposits that emanate from channels that cut into the crater rim. This HiRISE image -- indicated by a white box atop of a colorized THEMIS temperature image of Saheki -- was taken just east of the central uplift, where vividly colored materials now lie exposed in a kilometer-sized crater.

An enhanced color infrared image shows a close-up of the 1-kilometer crater and its contents. The wall of the crater shows a rainbow-like array of bedrock and deposits. Much of this material has been eroded over time and has slumped downwards towards the crater floor, leaving behind chalk-like streaks of color. We can also see reddish and dark-toned layered deposits to the south now covered by the crater's green-toned ejecta.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, 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 NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.