Faulting Mars

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Caption:

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This region of Xanthe Terra has mostly been contracted due to thrust faulting, but this local region shows evidence of extensional faulting, also called normal faulting.

When two normal faults face each other, they create a bathtub-like depression called a "graben."

This is a stereo pair with ESP_046064_1800 .

Background Info:

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

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