Channels to the North of Savich Crater

This image covers channels cutting through the ancient rim of Savich Crater, a 188 kilometer-wide depression near the northeastern edge of the much larger Hellas impact basin. The channels were likely eroded by water flowing into Savich Crater long ago.

Our image reveals layers of varying brightness and texture exposed along the channels. Individual boulders are visible within the brighter layers (appearing blue-white in this enhanced color view), while redder layers lack distinct boulders.

The meter-scale boulders could have been transported by floodwaters, or perhaps could be an even more ancient rock unit broken apart by impacts that these channels subsequently exposed.

The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. (The original image scale is 25.6 centimeters [10.1 inches] per pixel [with 1 x 1 binning]; objects on the order of 77 centimeters [30.3 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.