Skip Navigation: Avoid going through Home page links and jump straight to content
banner.gif

Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)



MOC Images Suggest Recent Sources of Liquid Water on Mars

MGS MOC Releases MOC2-234 to MOC2-245, 22 June 2000

Gullies seen on martian cliffs and crater walls in a small number of high-resolution images from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) suggest that liquid water has seeped onto the surface in the geologically recent past. The gully landforms are usually found on slopes facing away from mid-day sunlight, and most occur between latitudes 30° and 70° in both martian hemispheres. The relationship to sunlight and latitude may indicate that ice plays a role in protecting the liquid water from evaporation until enough pressure builds for it to be released catastrophically down a slope. The relative freshness of these features might indicate that some of them are still active today--meaning that liquid water may presently exist in some areas at depths of less than 500 meters (1640 feet) beneath the surface of Mars.

The evidence for recent water activity is described in a paper by MGS MOC scientists being published in the June 30, 2000, issue of Science. The gullies are rare landforms that are too small to have been detected by the cameras of the Mariner and Viking spacecraft that examined the planet prior to MGS.


gullylables_i2.jpg
MOC2-234
Gully Landform
weeping_i2.jpg
MOC2-235
"Weeping" Layer
gorgonum2_c_i2.jpg
MOC2-236
Gorgonum Chaos
sp_pit_i2.jpg
MOC2-237
S Polar Pit
scicover_c_i2.jpg
MOC2-238
Noachis Crater
ab1_figures_i2.jpg
MOC2-239
Aerobraking Crater
nirgal_i2.jpg
MOC2-240
Nirgal Vallis
eg_crater_c_i2.jpg
MOC2-241
E Gorgonum Crater
newton_figure_i2.jpg
MOC2-242
Newton Crater
sirenum_c_i2.jpg
MOC2-243
Sirenum Trough
age_figure_i2.jpg
MOC2-244
Age Relations
elysium_p_i2.jpg
MOC2-245
Elysium Crater

MSSS Image Use Policy


babylogo.gif
Malin Space Science Systems, Inc.