Cracks in sediments in the double crater Sigli and Shambe
Cracks in sediments in the double crater Sigli and Shambe
At the edge of Ladon Valles, close to the transition between the Martian highlands and the northern plains, large amounts of water flooded through a narrow valley and into a vast and ancient impact basin during an early period of Mars' history. Sediments were deposited by this water In Sigli and Shambe, two smaller, overlapping impact craters in the west of Ladon Valles. A pattern of cracks can be observed in the surface of the sediment. These could have been formed by a process similar to desiccation cracking on Earth, and ice may have played a role in their creation. Shambe, the crater in the foreground has a diameter of 35 kilometres and is named after a historic city in Sudan. Sigli is named after a town in Indonesia and has a diameter of 30 kilometres.
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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.