PIA13556: Mars Volcanic Cone with Hydrothermal Deposits


Mars Volcanic Cone with Hydrothermal Deposits

Caption:

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Annotated Version
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This volcanic cone in the Nili Patera caldera on Mars has hydrothermal mineral deposits on the southern flanks and nearby terrains. Two of the largest deposits are marked by arrows, and the entire field of light-toned material on the left of the cone is hydrothermal deposits. The cone is about 5 kilometers (3 miles) in diameter at the base.

The deposits are evidence for a past local environment that was warm and wet or steamy, possibly hospitable to microbial life, as reported in a November 2010 Nature Geoscience paper by J.R. Skok, of Brown University, Providence, R.I., and co-authors.

This image is in false color derived from observation in infrared wavebands with the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The CRISM spectral data is overlaid on imagery from the Context Camera on that orbiter. A stereo pair of Context Camera images provided topographic information for a digital terrain model produced with NASA Ames Stereo Pipeline software. The image uses no vertical exaggeration.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mars
System
Target Type Planet
Mission Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
Instrument Host Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Host Type Orbiter
Instrument Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) Context Camera (CTX)
Detector
Extra Keywords Color, Infrared, Thermal, Volcano
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2010-10-31
Date in Caption
Image Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL/Brown Univ.
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13556
Identifier PIA13556