Volcanic ash in the planum meridian on Mars

Volcanic ash deposits color the Meridian Planum - a plain at the northern end of the Southern Hills on the surface of Mars, seen through a telescope - Plain at the northern end of the Southern Hills on the surface of Mars, seen through the telescope of the European Mars Express spacecraft

Volcanic ash deposits paint the Planum meridian, as seen from the Mars Express space probe. They also hint at the wind directions in this region of Mars. Meridian Planum, a plain at the northern edge of the southern hills on the surface of Mars, is visible through the HRSC telescope as a dark and dramatic region at the equatorial equator.

Meridian Planum is about 127 km long, 63 km wide, and it spreads over an area the size of Cyprus. It was chosen as a landmark in the geographic coordinate system of Mars, so the area is equal to Greenwich Mean Time.

The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) photographed the plane and recorded it on September 1, 2005, during the 2097th orbit, with a resolution of about 13 m per pixel.

In the center of the image, the bottom of an impact crater about 50 km wide is covered with dark material. The material is similar to volcanic ash, and it contains minerals such as pyroxene and olivine. Small amounts of lighter material are scattered over the surface of the crater, apparently this is a heavier material. Light material And the lighter one crumbled and was blown out of the crater by northeast winds, now it has landed in the outer regions.

A small 15 km diameter impact crater, pictured above left, shows the same dark material at its southwestern edge. It is likely that the material was also blown into the smaller crater from the large crater. The black structures are most likely dunes formed from sediment-rich volcanic dust On the other hand, the 34 km diameter impact crater in the lower right part of the image is full of light material.

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