Hexagon Crater

This image is located along the margin between Terra Cimmeria and Elysium Planitia. This boundary region is typified by tectonic fractures forming long, linear depressions. The crater in the lower half of the image has a hexagon shape rather than the normal circular outline. The regional surface/subsurface fracture system deflected the impact generated pressure waves along the tectonic network, causing the linear sides we see in the image. Meteor Crater in northern Arizona has a similar flat sided shape, in that case a square rather than a hexagon. The Arizona crater impacted into sandstone and limestone that had a right angle fracture system.

Orbit Number: 78210 Latitude: -7.13006 Longitude: 147.811 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2019-08-02 02:56

Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.