Anaglyph image of a tectonic fault zone in Memnonia Fossae
Anaglyph image of a tectonic fault zone in Memnonia Fossae
Anaglyph images can be created from the nadir channel of the HRSC camera system operated by DLR on board the ESA Mars Express spacecraft, which is directed vertically onto the surface of Mars, and the oblique view from one of the four stereo channels. When viewed through red-blue/cyan or red-green glasses, they allow realistic, three-dimensional views of the landscape.
This spatial view enables the grabens, which all run from east to west (north is to the right for technical reasons), and their environment to be artificially highlighted. The remnants of a number of terraces in the heavily eroded rim of the unnamed, 52-kilometre-wide crater are also visible as a result. Close to the right-hand edge of the image is a conspicuous group of three circular craters in a row – these are presumably secondary craters. These occur when the material ejected following the asteroid impact that gave rise to the primary crater is deposited in its surroundings immediately afterwards. Large pieces of ejecta travel a short distance, one behind the other, and then land radially to the crater rim, forming characteristic crater chains.