HiRISE: Bedrock exhumed from the deep

ESP_011523_1695Roadside bedrock outcrops are all too familiar for many who have taken a long road trip through mountainous areas on Earth. Martian craters provide what tectonic mountain building and man’s TNT cannot: crater-exposed bedrock outcrops.

Although crater and valley walls offer us roadside-like outcrops from just below the Martian surface, their geometry is not always conducive to orbital views. On the other hand, a crater central peak—a collection of mountainous rocks that have been brought up from depth, but also rotated and jumbled during the cratering process—produce some of the most spectacular views of bedrock from orbit. [More at link]

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