Gullies and Streaks on Crater wall Kaiser

• Click the image above for a larger view
• Full-Res JPEG (836 x 878) (133.0 kB)
• Full-Res TIFF (836 x 878) (730.2 kB)

Caption:

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows gullies emergent from a specific layer in the wall of an ancient crater within a much larger crater, Kaiser. Located at 46.4°S, 341.4°W, this picture obtained in early southern summer also shows a plethora of dark, and in some places squiggly, streaks. The streaks are thought to have been formed by the passage of dust devils that removed or disrupted a thin coating of dust from the surface. Such streaks commonly form at martian middle latitudes in late spring and early summer. The gullies in the crater wall were likely eroded by a fluid, perhaps water. This picture was obtained in January 2002; it covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) across and is illuminated from the upper left.

Cataloging Keywords: