Clay-Rich Terrain in Eridania Basin

HiRISE reveals small-scale shapes that often correlate with mineral units and provides information about stratigraphy (i.e., what's on top and relative ages). This image was acquired for co-analysis with a spectrometer instrument also on our spacecraft called CRISM (Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars). It shows polygonal units that match clay-rich areas. Plus, this region is colorful!

This location, in Eridania Basin, was the site of an ancient lake, so these clay-rich sediments may have been habitable.

While CRISM cannot acquire new data from their infrared channel due to lack of cooling, they have acquired much previous data that lacks HiRISE coverage.

The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. (The original image scale is 51.2 centimeters [20.2 inches] per pixel [with 2 x 2 binning]; objects on the order of 154 centimeters [60.6 inches] across are resolved.) North is up.

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