20050627

Monument Valley on Mars


"Northern Terra Meridiani, near the intersection of the martian equator and prime meridian, is a region of vast exposures of layered rock. A thermal image from the Phobos 2 orbiter in 1989 showed these materials to be anomalously cool during the daytime, an observation very suggestive of dense, hardened materials like rock. Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera images of this region show layered material exposed in cliffs, buttes, and mesas that in some ways resemble the rock outcrops of northern Arizona and southeastern Utah (e.g., Monument Valley, Canyonlands, Zion National Park, Four Corners)."