Bright mineral deposits in the Trouvelot Crater on Mars
Bright mineral deposits in the Trouvelot Crater on Mars
This strikingly bright, unusual geological formation is found on the floor of the 150-kilometre-wide Trouvelot Crater in the Arabia Terra highlands of Mars. It is approximately 20 kilometres long, up to eight kilometres wide, and roughly 270 metres high. There, in an aqueous environment, volcanic materials (such as large amounts of ash) may have been deposited in a crater lake and transformed into clay and sulphur-bearing minerals. Later, the layered deposits were eroded by the wind. The exact origin of these sedimentary hills is not yet fully clarified.