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Nilus Chaos

June 30, 2022
This image from NASA's Mars Odyssey shows a portion of Nilus Chaos. Located north of Kasei Vallis, this chaos formed at the elevation boundary between Kasei Valles and the surrounding plains.
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This VIS image shows a portion of Nilus Chaos. Located north of Kasei Vallis, this chaos formed at the elevation boundary between Kasei Valles (lower elevation) and the surrounding plains (higher elevation). Chaos terrain is typified by regions of blocky, often steep sided, mesas interspersed with deep valleys. With time and erosion the valleys widen and the mesas become smaller. In this region of chaos, the mesas decrease in size the closer it approaches to the lower elevation surface.

Orbit Number: 89748 Latitude: 24.5105 Longitude: 280.641 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2022-03-09 03:53

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.

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