Colour plan view of the Danielson and Kalocsa craters in the Arabia Terra region
Colour plan view of the Danielson and Kalocsa craters in the Arabia Terra region
This colour plan view was created by combining data from the nadir channel of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, which is directed vertically down onto the planet’s surface, with data from the colour channels; north is to the right in the image. Arabia Terra is the transition zone between the southern highlands of Mars and the low-lying plains of the planet’s northern hemisphere. Similar to many craters in the Arabia Terra region, Danielson Crater is filled with stratified sediments, which, over time, have become heavily eroded. The terrain forms that result from this erosion are known as 'yardangs'. Wind effects can also be identified in an area of dunes extending over a length of 30 kilometres in Danielson Crater, although these dunes were only formed in the recent geological past. The dark discolouration is probably due to volcanic material. Other striking features are the massive lava flow in the lower section of the image (to the east of the craters) and a step that marks the transition to a lower-lying area of terrain in the top left-hand section of the image (south-west).
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.