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Topographical and morphological studies of Valles Marineris, Mars by using Mars Colour Camera onboard India’s first Mars Orbiter Mission with MOLA data

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Abstract

The surface of Mars is an integrated record of the geological processes that have acted on the planet over its history. The geomorphic landforms provide evidence for constructional events as well as vast erosional episodes in Mars’s history. In the present study, the Valles Marineris Province of Mars, which is the largest canyon system in the solar system, has been selected for topographical and morphological analysis by using the Mars Colour Camera (MCC) onboard Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), commonly called as Mangalyaan along with MOLA data. Mars Colour Camera (MCC) is designed to image the complete Mars disk with a spatial resolution of nearly 4 km from an altitude of 80,000 km and localized scenes at a higher spatial resolution of nearly 19 m from an altitude of 370 km. The spectral range for MCC varies from 300 to 700 nm. The Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) data is used to create MCC-wrapped DEM as well as to study the topography of the study region. The MOLA data works in the wavelength region of 1.064 μm, with the field of view (FOV) of 850 μrad. The topographic analysis done using the 3D profiles derived from MOLA data showed that Noctis Labrynthus has the highest elevation of ~7500 m, and Melas Chasma and Coprates Chasma have the lowest depth of about ~ −5000 m. MCC images revealed geomorphic features like fractured terrains, plateaus, landslides, yardangs, and impact craters. Fractured terrain shows that tectonic activity could have taken place in the past. The presence of plateau, mesa and yardangs show the abundance of aeolian activity; chaotic terrain shows that they maybe plateau remnants and the presence of landslide and slide materials shows that the landslide maybe occurred due to the action of gravity or due to the underground water movement.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), India, for financial support under the Mars Orbiter Mission – Announcement of Opportunity (MOM-AO) research project [Sanction. No. ISRO/SSPO/MOM-AO/2016-2019] and CSIR-HRDG for providing SRF fellowship to the first author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Applied Geology, The Gandhigram Rural Institute (Deemed-to-be University), Gandhigram, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, India

    T Sivasankari & S Arivazhagan

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  1. T Sivasankari
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  2. S Arivazhagan
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Contributions

T Sivasankari: Methodology, data curation, resources, software, writing – original draft. S Arivazhagan: Conceptualization, supervision, writing – review and editing.

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Correspondence to S Arivazhagan.

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Communicated by Arkoprovo Biswas

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Sivasankari, T., Arivazhagan, S. Topographical and morphological studies of Valles Marineris, Mars by using Mars Colour Camera onboard India’s first Mars Orbiter Mission with MOLA data. J Earth Syst Sci 132, 75 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-023-02083-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-023-02083-4

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