Mars: Stratigraphy Exposed by an Impact Crater | NASA MRO

Geologists love road cuts because they reveal the bedrock stratigraphy (layering). Until we have highways on Mars, we can get the same information from fresh impact craters as shown in this image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). This image reveals these layers filling a larger crater, perhaps a combination of lava, impact ejecta, and sediments.

The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Release Date: May 10, 2017

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