Perspective view of a fault zone in Memnonia Fossae
Perspective view of a fault zone in Memnonia Fossae
The perspective view looking from east to west over Memnonia Fossae – simulated using a digital terrain model – shows how the older crater is intersected by a 1.5-kilometre-wide fault zone. During the stretching process, the terrain in this tectonic graben dropped several hundred metres. Some of the mesas projecting from the crater floor show the original level of the sediments deposited in the crater. It is possible that the crater was flooded at a later point by low-viscosity lava coming from the fault, so that the mesas were surrounded before they were eroded away and thus were stabilised. The unnamed crater is 52 kilometres in diameter.