This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)
camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows sedimentary-rock
layering in which a series of layers are all approximately the same
thickness.
Three-dimensional analysis using stereo pairs of HiRISE images has
confirmed the periodic nature of the layering. Individual layers in the
area average about 10 meters (33 feet) in thickness.
This image, taken on Feb. 25, 2007, is a portion of the HiRISE image
catalogued as PSP_002733_1880. The location of the imaged area is at 8
degrees north latitude, 353 degrees east longitude, within the Arabia
Terra region.
The view covers an area about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) across, within an
unnamed crater in the Arabia Terra region of Mars. An oblique view created
from three-dimensional modeling (see PIA11442) shows the repetitive
thickness of some of the same layers visible in this image.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space
Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the
spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by
the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball
Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.
