Xanthe Chaos

Scaled Image

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU

About this image

Today's VIS image shows Xanthe Chaos, a region of knobs and mesas within the channel of Shalbatana Vallis.

In planetary nomenclature, the descriptor term chaos means "distinctive area of broken terrain". The general morphology of chaos is steep-sided mesas with intervening small valleys. With time and erosion the valleys widen and the mesas grow smaller. While on many planets chaos terrain results from tectonic forces, on Mars it is most likely that chaos terrain results from the release of melted subsurface ice.

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

Context

Image ID: 
V87588003 (View data in Mars Image Explorer)
11.818
317.879
87588
2021-09-12 07:17
Fri, 2022-04-01
VIS
512 pixels (19 km)
1824 pixels (66 km)
0.036311 km/pixel
0.0371729 km/pixel

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