Mars Geological Features

A collection of grey-scale images showcasing Martian landscapes, including lava tubes, craters, and dunes, revealing diverse geological processes.

Venus - Comparison of Venera and Magellan Resolutions

High Latitude Polygons

Crater Isabella is seen in this radar image from NASA's Magellan spacecraft. The second largest impact crater on Venus, the crater is named in honor of the 15th Century queen of Spain, Isabella of Castile.

The sun has risen over the south pole in this springtime VIS image. At the center of the image is a trough that reveals the layered nature of the polar cap ice. Orbit Number 81700 Latitude -85.4398 Longitude 309.383 Instrument VIS Captured 2020-05-15 11 24

Gradual Contact Between North Polar Ice and Layers

A rippled dune front in Herschel Crater on Mars moved an average of about two meters (about two yards) between March 3, 2007 and December 1, 2010, as seen in one of two images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

South Polar Layers

Mesa in Granicus Valles

Terby Crater Layers

An erosional trough on the eastern inner wall of the farside crater Moore F.

The Cassini spacecraft, using its radar system, has discovered very strong evidence for hydrocarbon lakes on Titan. Dark patches, which resemble terrestrial lakes, seem to be sprinkled all over the high latitudes surrounding Titan's north pole

MOC Looking

Singin' in Derain

Mars Rock Formation Poses Mystery

Bi-level Gullies

Cassini Image of Titan's 'Kissing Lakes'

Polar Barchans

This picture is illuminated by sunlight from the upper left. Some portions of the martian south polar residual cap have long, somewhat curved troughs instead of circular pits. These appear to form in a layer of material that may be different than that in which swiss cheese circles and pits form, and none of these features has any analog in the north polar cap or elsewhere on Mars. This picture shows the fingerprint terrain as a series of long, narrow depressions considered to have formed by collapse and widening by sublimation of ice. Unlike the north polar cap, the south polar region stays cold enough in summer to retain frozen carbon dioxide. Viking Orbiter observations during the late 1970s showed that very little water vapor comes off the south polar cap during summer, indicating that any frozen water that might be there remains solid throughout the year. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image was obtained in early southern spring on August 4, 1999. It show

This image, acquired by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows the rover Opportunity perched on the edge of 'Concepcin' crater, a fresh crater with dark rays that clearly overprint the north-trending, wind-shaped ripples, in Meridiani Planum.

Chryse Plains

Monitoring Fensal-Aztlan

Dust Devil Days

This Magellan image reveals Sacajawea Patera, a large, elongate caldera located in Western Ishtar Terra on the smooth plateau of Lakshmi Planum.

In this image, NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft spies what looks like a momma holding a baby. Orbit Number 51251 Latitude -5.73294 Longitude 210.403 Instrument IR Captured 2013-07-03 22 58

Airbag Impressions in Soil

White Rock' of Pollack Crater

Gullies on Martian Crater (MOC)

South Polar Ice Cap

Footprints from Above

Spring Time View of North Polar Sand Dunes

A View to the South

Venus - Mosaic of Bahet and Onatah Coronae

Daedalia Planum Wind Streak

These images, taken on February 19, 1997 by NASA's Galileo orbiter, show two of the three long-lived White Ovals that formed to the south of the Jupiter's Great Red Spot.

This image shows lava crumpled against the upstream side of an impact crater as seen by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Rolling Stones Make New Boulder Tracks

The goal of this observation from NASA' Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is to determine the source of the ridge within a possible moraine that is also present in another HiRISE image. A moraine is a mass of rocks and sediment carried down and deposited by a glacier. If the structure is a moraine, we should expect to find two sources of debris converging in the valley. If the sources are carrying lots of debris, there is a good chance of finding more moraine features further up the valley. The map is projected here at a scale of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) per pixel. The original image scale is 59.5 centimeters (23.4 inches) per pixel (with 2 x 2 binning); objects on the order of 179 centimeters (70.5 inches) across are resolved. North is up.

This image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows a very small portion of the lava flows that originated from Arsia Mons -- a pre-existing crater has been filled, with only small sections of its rim still visible above the level of the lava.

Lowdown

What Happens in Degas Stays in Degas

The Changing South Polar Cap of Mars: 1999-2005

A Martian Monument

Sweet Spot for Landing on Mars

The tiny black speck in the lower left corner of this image within the red circle is a cluster of recently formed craters spotted on Mars using a new machine-learning algorithm. This image was taken by the Context Camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in a region called Noctis Fossae, located at latitude -3.213, longitude 259.415. The medium-angle Context Camera can view hundreds of miles of terrain in low resolution; scientists then scan the image for interesting features and can request another MRO camera, the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), to zoom in for a more detailed view. The HiRISE view of the black speck in this image can be seen in PIA24040.

Topography on Europa....the Shadow Knows

Syrian Dust Devil

This stereo image mosaic from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor is of a field of dunes located in Nili Patera, a volcanic depression in central Syrtis Major. 3D glasses are necessary to view this image.

Waters in 3-D!

The intersecting linear depressions in this image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft are part of Hephaestus Fossae.

Buried Mid-Latitude Craters

South Polar Cap Erosion and Aprons

NASA's Opportunity rover used its Microscopic Imager to take a picture of this rock nicknamed Jornada del Muerto while in Perseverance Valley. The wind-carved streaks along its face were very similar to rocks seen at the rim of Endeavour Crater earlier in Opportunity's mission. This scene is about 2 inches (5 centimeters) wide. Jornada del Muerto (roughly translated Dead Man's Journey ) was one of the stops along the El Camino Real route used for centuries by Spanish and Mexican colonists to reach New Mexico from Mexico, and used by the Opportunity team to name rocks and features in Perseverance Valley.

Three images of the same location taken at different times on Mars show seasonal activity causing sand avalanches and ripple changes on a Martian dune. HiRISE.

This synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) image was obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on July 25, 2016, during its 'T-121' pass over Titan's southern latitudes. The image shows an area nicknamed the 'Xanadu annex' by members of the Cassini radar team.

This MOC image shows a large dust devil flanked by two relatively small dust devils, moving together across a lightly-dusted, south high-latitude plain

Crater Cluster Near Pathfinder

This image mosaic from NASA's Magellan spacecraft shows the impact crater Golubkina.

Dark Valley in Newton Crater

Evidence for Recent Wind Action on Martian Sand Dunes

As Antarctica remains shrouded in darkness during the Southern Hemisphere winter, the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) on Landsat 8 captured a new snap of the 2,240-square-mile iceberg that split off from the Antarctic Peninsulas Larsen C ice shelf on July 10-12. The satellite imagery is a composite of Landsat 8 as it past on July 14 and July 21 and shows that the main berg, A-68, has already lost several smaller pieces. The A-68 iceberg is being carried by currents northward out of its embayment on the Larsen C ice shelf. The latest imagery also details a group of three small, not yet released icebergs at the north end of the embayment.

Martian Spectacles

Fine topographic detail and color variations are revealed in this 11-image, false color mosaic taken during Cassini's second close flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus, on March 9, 2005

Gordii Fossae Troughs

Boulder-Strewn Surface

Door to 'Pilbara'

This is full-resolution mosaic from NASA's Magellan spacecraft. The bright feature, slightly south of center is interpreted to be a volcano with a large apron of blocky debris to its right and some smaller aprons to its left.

Storm Factory

The Aitken crater, and the northern edge of Vertregt J.

Moderate-resolution view of Callisto's surface

Northern Plains

This image from the Mars Orbiter Camera aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft shows an overview of Victoria

Crater Floor Bands

Signs of Eolian and Periglacial Activity at Vastitas Borealis

This image is a NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter closeup of a small fresh crater with very dark ejecta highlands near Rima Bode II.

This VIS image shows part of Tractus Catena, just one of many north/south trending tectonic graben located south and east of Alba Mons. The features running vertically and horizontally in the image are both part of Tractus Catena. The horizontal section is younger than the vertical section, but it is not known when the horizontal part formed in relation to the vertical. While other graben in the area are identified as fossae (defined as a long, narrow depression), the circular depressions within these graben lead to the descriptor name catena (defined as a chain of craters). In this case the craters are a result of roof collapse into an underlying open space such as a lava tube. Orbit Number 89387 Latitude 22.0871 Longitude 255.805 Instrument VIS Captured 2022-02-07 10 28

Daedalia Wind Streak

This view of Cilix impact crater on Europa was created in 2013 using 3-D stereo images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft, combined with advanced image processing techniques.

Exposure of Polar Layered Deposits

This radar image acquired in February 2000 by NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) shows an area south of the Sao Francisco River in Brazil.

This IR image from NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft shows streamlined islands in the channel of Mangala Valles.

This MOC image shows small ridges in the Memnonia region of Mars. The ridges or yardangs, as they are called, are formed by wind erosion

Dust Event

A sand sheet with surface dune forms covers the floor of this unnamed crater near the north pole. This image was taken by NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft.

The Mystery of the Sparkling Spheres

Closeup view of organic material under the microscope

Common Craters (Earth and Eros)

Browsing at 'Bylot'

Ganymede Uruk Sulcus High Resolution Mosaic Shown in Context

Outcrop of Otaki sandstone near foot of hills east of Levin showing contemporaneous marine borings (silt filled) ... black-and-white negatives, gelatin dry plate negatives

Layers in Crater Cluster

Sappinia is an amoeba (a single-celled living organism), found in the environment. There are two known species of Sappinia: Sappinia diploidea and Sappinia pedata. This amoeba causes amoebic encephalitis, which is an infection of the brain. Worldwide, only one case of amoebic encephalitis due to Sappinia infection has been reported.

Chain of Pits

Bright Streaks and Dark Fans

Dust Devils Near Schiaparelli

Drone view. Abstract forms created on surface of freezing lake

Sappinia is an amoeba (a single-celled living organism), found in the environment. There are two known species of Sappinia: Sappinia diploidea and Sappinia pedata. This amoeba causes amoebic encephalitis, which is an infection of the brain. Worldwide, only one case of amoebic encephalitis due to Sappinia infection has been reported

Seduced by the Dark Side

Boulder Tracks on Schiaparelli Basin South Wall

Huygens Landing Site Similarities

Wedge-shaped asymmetrical ejecta pattern surrounding a mare crater.

Upper

of 3