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An active venting crater located
3°N 3.5°E in northern Meridiani at the border to Arabia about 480 km
south of the Pillars. The composite image is 200% original size,
therfore 50 m/pix. The images were randomly shot over about one year.
Here the visual ones are presented in a sequence of one ejection cycle. At first we see the bright crater with bright ejecta, either ice or salt from evaporated water.
Then, in the second frame, a large cloud covers the crater. In the third frame we see black ejecta around the crater about the size the cloud had before, as expected, as the cloud
settled and triggered a chemical reaction with the martian soil. The
crater is still bright because it still emits water clouds. In the last
frame the venting is just at lower activity level than before. |
| The cloud of the second frame is shown here in 300% of the above size (600% of the original Themis image) in different histogram adjustments. We still see the crater and the cloud is wind drifted to the east. |
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The visual image with the black
ejecta combined with a thermal image looks almost the same. Main distinction
are some black craters in the thermal one. It is probably due to
evaporating water that cools the ground. Notable is the still bright
(hot) interior of the eruption crater. It indicates continuous activity
powered by subsurface vulcanism. This crater is probably a
pseudocrater. The lack of any topography-related shadow points to such
a flat short-cone typ of crater, too. |
| I01635005 | 2002-04-28 | INA 51 | LST 15.4 | SL 5 | white cloud over crater |
| I01804002 | 2002-05-12 | LST 3.5 |
SL 12 | thermal | |
| I04606009 | 2002-12-28 | INA 73 | LST 16.8 |
SL 115 |
bright ejecta |
| I06466022 | 2003-05-30 | INA 82 | LST 17.4 | SL 194 | black ejecta |