13 August 2006
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows
dried streambeds -- martian gullies -- in the mountainous central peak
region of Hale Crater. Some scientists have suggested that the fluid which
carved these gullies was liquid water, and that it either resulted from
ancient snowmelt or from release of groundwater that percolated to the
surface in the intensely fractured rock of Hale's central peak. In either
case, the gullies are dry today, and dark sand can be seen as dunes near
the right/lower right part of the image.
Location near: 35.8°S, 36.8°W
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi)
Illumination from: upper left
Season: Southern Summer