Flight over Becquerel Crater
This animation features Becquerel crater on our neighbor planet Mars. On the floor of the crater sediments build a pile of nearly 1000 meters.
Video: "Flight over Becquerel Crater" from 2014 [2:32 min]
Copyright: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
Becquerel is situated in the northern hemisphere of Mars in Arabia Terra, a region that is 3.5 billion years old and has many impact craters. Hyperspectral imagery from the CRISM instrument on NASA´s Mars Reconnaissance orbiter show, that the light-toned deposits in this region are composed of sulfate-bearing rocks, partly containing water. On Earth, the formation of most sulfates (for example gypsum) results from the evaporation of water. The common occurrences of these deposits in Arabia Terra point to a large-scale process responsible for the formation of the layered deposits. Presumably, the sediments were created by the interaction of wind-blown sediments and/or volcanic ashes and upwelling groundwater in low lying areas such as crater floors.
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Link to press release: Flight over Becquerel Crater (Dec 18, 2014) |