{ "title": "Folded Layers in Melas Chasma", "authors": "HiRISE", "metadata": { "thumbnailURL": "https://static.uahirise.org/anews/2020-09-08/ESP_026312_1700.jpg", "excerpt": "There are folded layered deposits in the bottom half of this image in Melas Chasma, on Mars. How did this folding occur?" }, "version": "1.5", "identifier": "ESP_026312_1700", "language": "en", "layout": { "columns": 10, "width": 1024, "margin": 85, "gutter": 20 }, "documentStyle": { "backgroundColor": "#faf7f2" }, "components": [ { "role": "heading1", "layout": "heading1Layout", "text": "HiPOD: 8 September 2020" }, { "role": "divider", "layout": "bigDividerLayout", "stroke": { "width": 3, "color": "#8c2028" } }, { "role": "title", "layout": "halfMarginBelowLayout", "text": "Folded Layers in Melas Chasma" }, { "role": "photo", "layout": "fullBleedLayout", "caption": "An enhanced color cutout of the folding. The blue likely represents basaltic sand. Less than 1 km across. (NASA/JPL/UArizona)", "URL": "https://static.uahirise.org/anews/2020-09-08/ESP_026312_1700.jpg" }, { "role": "body", "format": "html", "layout": "hipodMarginLayout", "text": "
There are folded, layered deposits in the bottom half of this image in Melas Chasma, in central Valles Marineris. How did this folding occur? On Earth, rocks are commonly folded when deeply buried and subject to high heat and pressure, which can make any rock flow. Such deep burial (and re-exposure or exhumation) is unlikely at this location.
In general, Mars has experienced much less vertical motion of geologic strata than on Earth. Another possibility is that these layers were soft and deformable near the surface, such as wet or icy sediments. There are other folded layers in the giant Hellas impact basin as well.
ID: ESP_026312_1700
date: 7 March 2012
altitude: 264 km
NASA/JPL/UArizona