Cerberus Fossae/Athabasca Valles

The top of today's VIS image shows a section of Cerberus Fossae. Located southeast of the Elysium Planitia volcanic complex, the linear graben near the top of the image were created by tectonic forces related to volcanic activity. The graben are sources of both channels and significant volcanic flows. Cerberus Fossae cuts across features such as hills, indicating the relative youth of the tectonic activity. Graben form where extensional tectonic forces allows blocks of material to subside between paired faults. In the central part of the image part of Athabasca Valles is visible. Arising from Cerberus Fossae, the formation mode of this channel is still being debated. While the channel features are similar to water flow, other features are similar to lava flows, and yet other features have an appearance of slabs of material that floated on an underlying fluid. It is thought that Athabasca Valles is the youngest outflow channel system on Mars. Athabasca Valles is just one of the complex channel formations in the Elysium Planitia region. The Cerberus Fossae tectonic features are 1235km (767 miles) long. Athabasca Valles is 270km (168 miles) long.

Orbit Number: 94045 Latitude: 9.43635 Longitude: 156.501 Instrument: VIS Captured: 2023-02-25 23:19

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.