East Gorgonum Crater
This suite of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera
(MOC) pictures provides a vista of martian gullies on the northern wall
of a 12 kilometer-(7.4 mile)-wide meteor impact crater east of the
Gorgonum Chaos region on the red planet.
The first picture (lower left)
is a composite of three different high resolution MOC views obtained in 1999 and 2000.
The second picture (lower right)
shows the location of the high resolution views relative to the whole
crater as it appeared in the highest resolution image previously acquired
of the area, taken by the Viking 1 orbiter in 1978. The release
image (top) shows a close-up of one of the channels and debris
aprons found in the northwestern quarter of the impact crater.
Some of the channels in this crater are deeply-entrenched and cut
into lighter-toned deposits. The numerous channels and apron deposits
indicate that many tens to hundreds of individual events involving the
flow of water and debris have occurred here. The channels and
aprons have very crisp, sharp relief and there are no small meteor
impact craters on them, suggesting that these features are extremely
young relative to the 4.5 billion year history of Mars. It is possible that
these landforms are still being created by water seeping from the
layered rock in the crater wall today.
The crater has no name and it is located near 37.4°S, 168.0°W.
The composite view in the lower left includes a picture taken by MOC on
September 10, 1999, a picture obtained April 26, 2000, and another
on May 22, 2000. The scene from left to right (including the dark gap
between photos) covers an area approximately 7.6 kilometers
(4.7 miles) wide by 18 km (11.1 mi) long. Sunlight illuminates the
scene from the upper left. MOC high resolution images are taken
black-and-white (grayscale); the color seen here has been
synthesized from the colors of Mars observed by the MOC wide
angle cameras and by the Viking Orbiters in the late 1970s.
Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
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