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> Layered sedimentary rock on Mars

Layered sedimentary rock on Mars

author: Nasa/JPL/MSSS/Novapix

reference: a-mar06-00110

Image Size 300 DPI: 10 * 13 cm

The picture shows a 1.5 km by 2.9 km area in far southwestern Candor Chasma. There are over 100 beds in this area, and each has about the same thickness (estimated to be about 10 meters (11 yards) thick). Each layer has a relatively smooth upper surface, and each is hard enough to form steep cliffs at its margins. Layers indicate change. The uniform pattern seen here---beds of similar properties and thickness repeated over a hundred times---suggest that the deposition of materials that made the layers was interrupted at regular or episodic intervals. Patterns like this, when found on Earth, usually indicate the presence of sediment deposited in dynamic, energetic, underwater environments. On Mars, these same patterns could very well indicate that the materials were deposited in a lake or shallow sea.

Keywords for this photo:

2000 - ASTRONOMY - CANDOR CHASMA - CANYON - MARS - MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR - PLANET - SEDIMENT - VALLES MARINERIS - WATER -