Perspective view from the south east of the caldera at Tharsis Tholus
Perspective view from the south east of the caldera at Tharsis Tholus
The main feature of Tharsis Tholus is the size of its central caldera. This slightly elongated collapse crater at the summit of the volcano, measuring roughly 32 by 34 kilometres, extends over an area almost as large as Berlin and the base is as much as 2.7 kilometres below the red-coloured rim.
Between 28 October and 13 November 2004, the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board Mars Express acquired a series of images during orbits 0997, 1019, 1041 and 1052, which have been combined to form this mosaic image.
Copyright note:
As a joint undertaking by DLR, ESA and FU Berlin, the Mars Express HRSC images are published under a Creative Commons licence since December 2014: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. This licence will also apply to all HRSC images released to date.