Cerberus Fossae, shaped by volcanism and tectonics
Cerberus Fossae, shaped by volcanism and tectonics
Credit:
ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
Cerberus Fossae, shaped by volcanism and tectonics
The landscape in the Cerberus Fossae region seems to have been cut by a knife. The tectonic fracture structures were formed less than 100 million years ago, perhaps as recently as 10 million years ago. This can also be seen in the profile of the fossae, which are bordered by extremely steep walls, almost vertical in places and more than 500 metres tall in places, which have hardly been flattened by erosion. The SEIS seismometer on NASA's InSight mission was able to detect two quakes here, about 1700 kilometres east of the landing site, quite accurately and another with somewhat greater uncertainty. The image was acquired on 27 January 2018 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board the European Mars Express spacecraft.The landscape in the Cerberus Fossae region seems to have been cut by a knife. The tectonic fracture structures were formed less than 100 million years ago, perhaps as recently as 10 million years ago. This can also be seen in the profile of the fossae, which are bordered by extremely steep walls, almost vertical in places and more than 500 metres tall in places, which have hardly been flattened by erosion. The SEIS seismometer on NASA's InSight mission was able to detect two quakes here, about 1700 kilometres east of the landing site, quite accurately and another with somewhat greater uncertainty. The image was acquired on 27 January 2018 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board the European Mars Express spacecraft.
