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> Mars: dunes and ice in Chasma Boreale

Mars: dunes and ice in Chasma Boreale

author: NASA/JPL/Arizona State University/Novapix

reference: a-mar10-00011

Image Size 300 DPI: 33 * 23 cm

Chasma Boreale is a huge canyon in the northern polar cap. It runs into the ice cap for 570 kilometers (350 miles), making a broad valley that ends at a point called Tenuis Cavus, shown in this THEMIS image taken at visible wavelengths.Tapering from a width of 120 km (75 miles) at its mouth, Chasma Boreale is only about 35 km (22 miles) wide here. The cliffs on the northern (top) and eastern (right) sides of the image rise about 1,400 meters (4,600 feet) above the base. On the inside walls of this gigantic amphitheater are stacked layers of ice, while on its floor lie a dark sheet of what is likely frozen sand and a horde of sand dunes marching down-canyon under the winds' direction.

Keywords for this photo:

2001 MARS ODYSSEY - 2006 - ASTRONOMY - CANYON - CHASMA BOREALE - DUNE - GEOLOGY - ICE - MARS - MARS ODYSSEY - PLANET - SAND -