Sirenum Fossae Trough

Image Title: Sirenum Fossae Trough
Release Date: December 4, 2005
Source: Mars Global Surveyor

Description

This picture reveals detail contained in a short stretch of just two of the troughs that make up Sirenum Fossae. The area shown is about 3 kilometers wide. Sirenum Fossae covers an area of more than 2700 square kilometers and is located in the Memnonia quadrangle of Mars.

In martian nomenclature, a fossa/fossae is one or more linear depressions that were most likely created by faulting. These troughs or depressions are long and narrow and resemble a ditch or trench. The Earth analogue is most likely a graben. With respect to the troughs of Sirenum Fossae, they were most likely formed from faulting created by the Tharsis bulge. On Mars, fossa often occur in groups. A single trough or ditch like this is called a fossa while a group of fossa are referred to as fossae, the plural of fossa.

Source Image Background

The source for this picture was an image taken by the Mars Global Surveyor Narrow Angle Camera in October 2003. The troughs shown are located at 30° south latitude, 148° west longitude. The area shown is approximately 3 kilometers wide. Resolution in the original image was about 3 meters per pixel.

Image Processing

All processing of this false color image was done using Adobe Photoshop. Image processing operations performed included destriping, contrast enhancement, and the application of color using a technique developed by the artist using a color palette representative of the native colors of Mars. In addition, some of the plains surface terrain that existed between the two troughs was digitally removed in order to reduce the vertical scale of the picture

Downloads

I have created a low resolution, compressed version of "Sirenum Fossae Trough " for use as a desktop wallpaper. The wallpaper is cropped to include only the upper trough. This wallpaper is made available for your personal use only. It is not to be modified or redistributed in any form by any means. All rights are retained by the artist.

Sirenum Fossae Trough , 1280 X 1024 Wallpaper Image by Jim Plaxco