Coprates Chasma Landslide

Scaled Image

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU

About this image

Coprates Chasma comprises the central portion of the Valles Marineris canyon system complex. This image of the southern wall of Coprates Chasma contains a landslide deposit with dunes over portions of slide. Landslides have very characteristic morphologies on Earth, which they also display on Mars. These morphologies include a distinctive escarpment at the uppermost part of the landslide--called a head scarp (seen at the bottom of this image), a down-dropped block of material below that escarpment that dropped almost vertically, and a deposit of debris that moved away from the escarpment at high speed. In this example, the wall rock displayed in the upper part of the cliff contains spurs and chutes created by differing amounts of erosion. The actual landslide deposit is delineated by its fan-shape and lobate margins. The dunes subsequently marched upon the landslide deposit.

Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images. 

Context

Image ID: 
V03423003 (View data in Mars Image Explorer)
-15.6372
304.204
3423
2002-09-22 00:51
Wed, 2002-10-23
VIS
1024 pixels (17 km)
3648 pixels (63 km)
0.017305 km/pixel
0.017431 km/pixel

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