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Landing Site Region

This is a close-up image of the area in the vicinity of the Pathfinder landing site

January 11, 2007

Credit

NASA/JPL/Univ. of Arizona

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This is a small volcano superimposed on the flanks of a larger one of the Cerberus Tholi.
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This is a small volcano superimposed on the flanks of a larger one of the Cerberus Tholi.
Small Floral-Shaped Volcano
This graphic illustrates where Mars mineral-mapping from orbit has detected minerals that can indicate where a volcano erupted beneath an ice sheet. The site is far from any ice sheet on modern Mar...
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This graphic illustrates where Mars mineral-mapping from orbit has detected minerals that can indicate where a volcano erupted beneath an ice sheet.
Evidence Builds for Old Under-Ice Volcanoes on Mars
This image acquired on December 13, 2020 by NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows blobby features in the polar cap that are due to the sun sublimating away the carbon dioxide into these round pa...
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This image acquired on December 13, 2020 by NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows blobby features in the polar cap that are due to the sun sublimating away the carbon dioxide into these round patterns.
Changes of a Happy Crater
In the novel and movie "The Martian," an astronaut's adventures take him to the rim of Mawrth Crater. This image from the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the nature of thi...
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In the novel and movie "The Martian," an astronaut's adventures take him to the rim of Mawrth Crater. This image from the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the nature of this terrain.
Western Edge of Mars' Marth Crater, a Movie Location
Collapsing Volcano; Edge of Olympus Mons
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Collapsing Volcano; Edge of Olympus Mons
Collapsing Volcano; Edge of Olympus Mons
This area at the base of Mount Sharp on Mars includes a pale outcrop, called "Pahrump Hills," that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover investigated from September 2014 to March 2015, and the "Artist's Driv...
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This area at the base of Mount Sharp on Mars includes a pale outcrop, called "Pahrump Hills," that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover investigated from September 2014 to March 2015, and the "Artist's Drive" route toward higher layers of the mountain.
Curiosity Heading Away from 'Pahrump Hills'
This photograph from Shiprock in northwestern New Mexico shows a ridge roughly 30 feet (about 10 meters) tall that formed from lava filling an underground fracture then resisting erosion better tha...
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This photograph from Shiprock in northwestern New Mexico shows a ridge roughly 30 feet (about 10 meters) tall that formed from lava filling an underground fracture then resisting erosion better than the material around it did.
'Wing' Dike of Hardened Lava in New Mexico
Gullies and Flow Features along Crater Wall in Promethei Terra
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Gullies and Flow Features along Crater Wall in Promethei Terra
Gullies and Flow Features along Crater Wall in Promethei Terra
Eberswalde Crater contains layered rocks about 100-meters thick exposed in a a well-preserved delta.
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Eberswalde Crater contains layered rocks about 100-meters thick exposed in a a well-preserved delta.
Delta Structure in Eberswalde Crater
At the center of this view of an area of mid-latitude northern Mars, a fresh crater about 6 meters (20 feet) in diameter holds an exposure of bright material, blue in this false-color image.
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At the center of this view of an area of mid-latitude northern Mars, a fresh crater about 6 meters (20 feet) in diameter holds an exposure of bright material, blue in this false-color image.
Exposed Ice in a Fresh Crater
This image shows part of the floor of an impact crater on the northern rim of the giant Hellas Basin.
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This image shows part of the floor of an impact crater on the northern rim of the giant Hellas Basin. Hellas includes the lowest elevations on Mars, and may have once held lakes or seas; layered rock outcrops occur around much of the edge of the basin. At this site, a large impact crater (about 90 kilometers across) was partly filled by layered rocks. These rocks on the crater floor are now eroding and forming strange pits. Here, the layers are mostly exposed on a steep slope which cuts across much of the image. On this slope, they crop out as rocky stripes, some continuous and others not. The material between the stripes is mostly covered by debris, but some areas of exposed rock are visible. The slope is capped by a thick, continuous layer that armors it against erosion; once this cap is gone, the lower material is removed rapidly, forming the steep slope. At the base of this slope, rocks on the floor of the pit appear bright and heavily fragmented by cracks known as joints. The variation in rock types suggests that the rocks here were deposited by multiple processes or in different environments. Sites like this may preserve a record of conditions on early Mars.
Layered Outcrops on Crater Floor
How before-and-after pictures led to the discovery of a fresh meteor impact crater on Mars.
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Mars Weathercam Helps Find Big, New Crater
Mars Weathercam Helps Find Big, New Crater
Dust-Mantled Topography near Zephyria Tholus
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Dust-Mantled Topography near Zephyria Tholus
Dust-Mantled Topography near Zephyria Tholus
This image contrasts gullies and recurring warm-season slope flows appearing in the same crater, in the middle southern latitudes of Mars.
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This image contrasts gullies and recurring warm-season slope flows appearing in the same crater, in the middle southern latitudes of Mars.
Gullies and Newly Identified Flow Features in Same Mars Crater (Arrows)
This series of images shows warm-season features that might be evidence of salty liquid water active on Mars today.
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This series of images shows warm-season features that might be evidence of salty liquid water active on Mars today.
Warm-Season Flows on Slope in Horowitz Crater (Nine-Image Sequence)
A hill with a V-shaped collapse structure, two craters and a circular fracture pattern — possibly the remains of a buried impact crater — appear to form the face of a bear on the Mars surface. This...
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This image taken in December 2022 by HiRISE on MRO appears to show a bear's face on the Mars' surface, made up of a hill, craters and a circular fracture pattern.
A Bear Lookalike on Mars
The HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took this image of the Perseverance rover on Feb. 24, 2021.
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The HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took this image of the Perseverance rover on Feb. 24, 2021.
HiRISE Views Perseverance After Landing
This HiRISE image shows gullies on a south-facing slope of a crater touched with late-Spring carbon dioxide frost. At this time of year, only the south-facing slopes of craters retain their frost, ...
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This HiRISE image shows gullies on a south-facing slope of a crater touched with late-Spring carbon dioxide frost.
MRO sees Frosty Spring Slopes
This HiRISE image shows fractured mounds on the southern edge of Elysium Planitia.
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This HiRISE image (PSP_003597_1765), shows fractured mounds on the southern edge of Elysium Planitia. The mounds are typically a few kilometers in diameter and about 200 feet tall. The fractures that crisscross their surfaces are dilational (extensional) in nature, suggesting that the mounds formed by localized uplift (i.e., they were pushed up from below). The mounds are probably composed of solidified lava. They are contiguous with, and texturally similar to, the flood lavas that blanket much of Elysium Planitia, and, where dilation cracks provide cross-sectional exposure, the uplifted material is rocky. Patches of mechanically weak and disrupted material overlie the rocky mound material. This is particularly conspicuous in the northeast corner of the HiRISE image. These patches may be remnants of a layer that was once more continuous but has been extensively eroded. Smooth lava plains fill the low-lying areas between the mounds. They are riddled with sinuous pressure ridges. The entire area is covered by a relatively thin layer of dust and sand.
Fractured Mounds in Elysium Planitia
This kickoff of a new Mars video series covers Opportunity's 14th anniversary on the Red Planet, Curiosity's spectacular panorama and ice deposits spotted by an orbiter.
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This kickoff of a new Mars video series covers Opportunity's 14th anniversary on the Red Planet, Curiosity's spectacular panorama and ice deposits spotted by an orbiter.
Mars Report: January 2018
The Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been taking images of Mars since 2006. This animation shows, at one frame per month, how these observations have accumulated to cover mo...
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The Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been taking images of Mars since 2006. This animation shows, at one frame per month, how these observations have accumulated to cover more than 99 percent of Mars. No other camera has ever shown so much of Mars in such high resolution.
A Decade of Compiling the Sharpest Mars Map
Polygons are of great interest because they often indicate the presence of shallow ice or of desiccation such as in a mud flat. However, nature sometimes seems too clever for us.
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This image shows mud flats in the shape of polygons in a snake-skin-looking pattern.
Polygonal Sand Dunes
Dunes on Floor of Samara Valles, Mars
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Dunes on Floor of Samara Valles, Mars
Dunes on Floor of Samara Valles, Mars
Crater Floor Deposits in Promethei Terra
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Crater Floor Deposits in Promethei Terra
Crater Floor Deposits in Promethei Terra
Artist concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter during aerobraking.
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Artist concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter during aerobraking.
Artist concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

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The Mars lander’s seismometer has picked up vibrations from four separate impacts in the past two years.
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