Colour plan view of a crater in Memnonia Fossae
Colour plan view of a crater in Memnonia Fossae
Memnonia Fossae is located to the west of the extensive Tharsis bulge in the Martian highlands. Heavily eroded, ancient impact structures such as this unnamed, 52-kilometre wide crater are typical of the region. As a result of expansion stresses in the Martian crust, numerous tectonic fractures running in an east-west direction have formed here – a one-and-a-half-kilometre wide graben stretches across the middle of the crater, together with other faults in the adjacent Martian highlands.