Olympica Fossae

Olympica Fossae is a complex channel located on the Tharsis volcanic plains between Alba Mons and Olympus Mons. The sinuosity of the large channel in the top half of the image indicates that this is a channel created by liquid flow. In this case the location and other surface features visible in the image indicate that lava flow rather than water created the channel. The more linear depression at the bottom left side of the image is probably a tectonic feature called a graben and was formed by movement along fault lines.

Orbit Number: 78693 Latitude: 25.836 Longitude: 248.007 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2019-09-10 21:41

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.