Almost Like Water

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Caption:

Map Projected Browse Image
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This image in Athabasca Valles shows lava flows originating from Elysium Mons to the northwest. A Context Camera image shows the lava flowed from the northwest to the southeast, diverting around obstacles as it settled . (The flow is outlined in blue with the flow direction shown in yellow, and the approximate location of the HiRISE image is represented by a white rectangle.)

The lava appears to have flowed smoothly around obstructions, almost like water, forming streamlined islands . In the southern part of this image, a branch of the flow diverts around a small crater, and eventually rejoins the main part of the flow. Irregular-shaped ring structures appear on the northern end and are related to the volcanic activity that formed the flows .

We also see a dense cluster of secondary craters that formed when material ejected from Corinto Crater (to the northwest) impacted the surface at high speed. At full-resolution, this terrain has the distinctive appearance of a field of numerous, small and closely-spaced craters .

The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 55.4 centimeters (21.8 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 166 centimeters (65.4 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.

Background Info:

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

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