images

River beds on Mars

by

Nasa/JPL/MSSS/Novapix

Reference

a-mar06-00115

Date

2006-10-15

Ancient, eroded, and exhumed sedimentary distributary fan located in a martian crater. A distributary fan is a generic term used by geologists to describe a family of deposits that includes river deltas and alluvial fans. Sometime in the distant past, when it was still possible for liquid water to flow across the martian surface, sediments transported through valleys by water formed a fan-shaped deposit in a 64-kilometer (40 miles) -diameter crater northeast of Holden Crater. The picture, is a mosaic of Mars Orbiter Camera high resolution images acquired between August 2000 and September 2003. The area covered is 14 km (8.7 mi) wide and 19.3 km (12 mi) high; north is up and the scene is illuminated by sunlight from the left, color added.