| NASA Center: |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
|---|
| Image # : |
PIA01039 |
|---|
| Date : |
06/22/2000
|
|---|
|
Title
Evidence for Recent Liquid Water on Mars
Full Description
Newton Crater is a large basin formed by an asteroid impact that
probably occurred more than 3 billion years ago. It is approximately
287 kilometers (178 miles) across.
The picture shown here (top) highlights the north wall of a specific,
smaller crater located in the southwestern quarter of Newton Crater
(above). The crater of interest was also formed by an impact; it is
about 7 km (4.4 mi) across, which is about 7 times bigger than the
famous Meteor Crater in northern Arizona in North America.
The north wall of the small crater has many narrow gullies eroded into
it. These are hypothesized to have been formed by flowing water and
debris flows. Debris transported with the water created lobed and
finger-like deposits at the base of the crater wall where it intersects
the floor (bottom center top image). Many of the finger-like deposits
have small channels indicating that a liquid, most likely water, flowed
in these areas.
Hundreds of individual water and debris flow events might have occurred
to create the scene shown here. Each outburst of water from higher up
on the crater slopes would have constituted a competition between
evaporation, freezing, and gravity. The individual deposits at the ends
of channels in this MOC image mosaic were used to get a rough estimate
of the minimum amount of water that might be involved in each flow
event. This is done first by assuming that the deposits are like debris
flows on Earth. In a debris flow, no less than about 10% (and no more
than 30%) of their volume is water. Second, the volume of an apron
deposit is estimated by measuring the area covered in the MOC image and
multiplying it by a conservative estimate of thickness, 2 meters (6.5
feet). For a flow containing only 10% water, these estimates
conservatively suggest that about 2.5 million liters (660,000 gallons)
of water are involved in each event; this is enough to fill about 7
community-sized swimming pools or enough to supply 20 people with their
water needs for a year.
The Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) high resolution view is located near
41.1S, 159.8W and is a mosaic of three different pictures acquired
between January and May 2000. The MOC scene is illuminated from the
left; north is up.
Keywords
Mars Global Surveyor MGS Mars Orbiter Camera MOC Newton Crater Meteor Crater Arizona Channels Gullies Asteroid
Subject Category
Planet-Mars, Mars Global Surveyor,
Reference Numbers
- Center:
JPL
- Center Number:
PIA01039
- GRIN DataBase Number:
GPN-2000-001430
Source Information
- Creator/Photographer: NASA, JPL, Malin Space Science Systems ODEvidence for Recent Liquid
- Original Source: DIGITAL
| Resolution | Format | Width
(Pixels) | Height
(Pixels) | Size
(KBytes) |
Thumbnail |
.jpg |
95 |
72 |
7 |
Small |
.jpg |
683 |
510 |
229 |
Medium |
.jpg |
1600 |
1195 |
1,035 |
Large |
.jpg |
2133 |
1593 |
1,307 |
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Updated October 31, 2002
• History Questions: NASA History Office
• Responsible NASA Official: Steve Garber
• Author: Michael Hahn. Editor: Dwayne A. Day
• Curator & Technical Questions: Erin Needham
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