Part of the canyon floor and wall rock in southwestern Melas Chasma on Mars meanders in a pattern resembling a dragon.

April 22, 2020

Part of the canyon floor and wall rock in southwestern Melas Chasma on Mars meanders in a pattern resembling a dragon.

The HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the image on July 4, 2007.

The floor of the region is an unusual deposit composed of light-toned blocks in a darker matrix. In the lighter blocks, the high resolution of the image reveals layers just a few meters thick. Most are approximately 300 to 1,600 feet (100 to 500 meters) in diameter and appear rounded, while others are elongated with angular edges.

The morphologies of the blocks suggest ductile deformation, such as from a flow or tectonic disruption after emplacement. Windblown (aeolian) ripples are interspersed between the blocks in the darker matrix.

Small valleys can be seen along the wall rock to the south, which is a mixture of two geologic units with differing reflectance.

The light-toned unit appears to be thinner and only exposed in localized spots. Several light-toned deposits are seen only in the valleys, suggesting they were either deposited or exposed by erosion.

More information on this image here.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona.

Credits

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

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