The Phaethontis Region
MC-24
The Phaethontis Region lies between 30° and 65 ° south latitude and 120° and 180 ° west longitude on Mars. This latitude range is where numerous gullies have been discovered. An old feature in this area, called Terra Sirenum lies in this Region; the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter discovered iron/magnesium Smectite there. Part of this Region contains what is called the Electris deposits, a deposit that is 100–200 meters thick. It is light-toned and appears to be weak because of few boulders. There are problems with acquiring photos and videos of many places on Mars. Some areas have been looked at more than others especially through such programs as the HiWish Program. NASA probably has images of almost all the planet through the Mars Odyssey and MRO satellites. The three Rovers only have a small amount of information because their areas of exploration have been very limited not more than 25 miles at the most (an that by Opportunity) hopefully Curiosity will break all the records since it seems to be of better construction than anything thus far. The Mars Express by ESA has also furnished many photos and videos Then we have DTMs and not too many of those have been made along with DTM animations and even fewer of those have been made so what is available is limited to me. But I will do the best I can for you.
Topographical Map of the Phaethontis Region
Among a group of large craters is Mariner Crater, first observed by the Mariner IV spacecraft in the summer of 1965. It was named after that spacecraft. A low area in Terra Sirenum is believed to have once held a lake that eventually drained through Ma'adim Vallis. Russia's Mars 3 probe landed in the Phaethontis quadrangle at 44.9° S and 160.1° W in December 1971. It landed at a speed of 75 km per hour, but survived to radio back 20 seconds of signal, then it went dead. Its message just appeared as a blank screen.
Image of the Phaethontis Region
Possible MSL Rover Landing Site Atlantis Chaos
The Atlantis Chaos is a region of disrupted terrain in the Phaethontis Region of Mars.
You can see the mantle covering and possible gullies. The two images are different parts of the original image. They have different scales
This region is 162 kilometers (101 mi) across, and was named after an albedo feature.
Just to the northeast of Atlantis Crater is Magelhaens Crater centered at 185.5°E 32.4°S.
Megelhaens Crater
This is an image of the central pit of an impact crater in the ancient highlands. The central uplifts of large impact craters often collapse to form pits on Mars, but they are still structural uplifts and often expose deep bedrock with diverse rock types which have a variety of colors. In this enhanced color sub-image, we see colorful streaks, where the bedrock is eroding, moving downhill a bit, then getting swept by the wind. Magelhaens is an impact crater in the southern highlands of Mars. It is 105 km in diameter and was named for Ferdinand Magellan, the 16th century Portuguese explorer. Magelhaens is located southwest of the volcanic region of Tharsis. It is surrounded by rocky peaks of unknown origin. These forms may be the result of tectonic movements in the Tharsis region, or of meteorite impact.
The Gorgonum Chaos is a set of canyons in the Phaethontis Region of Mars. It is located at 37.5° south latitude and 189° east longitude. Its name comes from an albedo feature. The Phaethontis Region is the location of many gullies that may be due to recent flowing water. Some are found in the Gorgonum Chaos. Gullies occur on steep slopes, especially craters. Gullies are believed to be relatively young because they have few, if any craters, and they lie on top of sand dunes which are young. Usually, each gully has an alcove, channel, and apron. Although many ideas have been put forward to explain them, the most popular involve liquid water either coming from an aquifer or left over from old glaciers.
The Gorgonum Chaos
Sirenum Fossae is a trough that starts at 220°E 25°S in the Memnonia Region and enters into the Phaethontis Region at about 211°E 30°S. Sirenum Fossae is 2,735 km long and was named after a classical albedo feature name. It cuts across the Phaethontis Region on about a 30° angle going to the southwest and exiting the Phaethontis Region at 180°E 39°S. Troughs on Mars like this one are called Fossae. Sirenum Fossae is believed to have formed by movement along a pair of faults causing a center section to drop down. This kind of feature is called a graben.
Sirenum Fossae in the Northeast Phaethontis Region
Sirenum Fossae
The Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera has imaged craters both young and old in this view of the Southern Highlands of Mars. This Part of the Sirenum Fossae region in the Southern Highlands, the area in this image is centered at about 28°S / 185°E. The image captures an area to the north of the Magelhaens Crater. But it also extends south of the Crater as well. It extends some 230 km by 127 km and covers about 29 450 sq. km, roughly the size of Belgium. The image resolution is approximately 29 meters per pixel.
Perspective view of Sirenum Fosse’s central plateau
Sirenum Fossae is a system of grabens, formed by stresses placed on the crust during the uprising of the Tharsis region. A graben is visible as two sets of parallel lines running from top to bottom to the left of center. The Southern Highlands are believed to be older than the Northern Lowlands, based on the larger number of impact craters seen to cover the region. Craters of 50 km in diameter are common in this area and have usually suffered from erosion, indicating they were formed during ancient times.
Just east of the Gorgonum Chaos is Triolet Crater amid the graben of the Sirenum Fossae.
Triolet Crater
Triolet Crater is a small crater 11.66 kilometers in diameter and is named after a Mauritius place name.
Going farther south we come to the large Copernicus Crater centered at 191°E 49°S.
Copernicus Crater
Copernicus Crater is 294 kilometers in diameter. It was named after Nicolaus Copernicus (Polish; 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) who was a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who formulated a heliocentric model of the universe which placed the Sun, rather than the Earth, at the center of the solar system.
To the east of Copernicus Crater is Very Crater centered at 182.5°E 49°S.
Very Crater
Very Crater is 114 kilometers in diameter. The crater is named after Frank Washington Very (1852 – November 23, 1927) who was a U.S. astronomer.
To the southeast of Very Crater is Liu Hsin Crater centered at about 187°E 53.5°S.
Liu Hsin Crater Ejecta and Surrounding Terrain
Possible Olivine-Rich Rim of Liu Hsin Crater with Mantle relating to Sedimentary/Layering Processes. Liu Hsin Crater is 137 kilometers in diameter. This crater was named after Liu Xin (ca. 50 BC – AD 23), later changed name to Liu Xiu , courtesy name Zijun , was a Chinese astronomer, historian, and editor during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 9) and Xin Dynasty (AD 9–23).
Going to the south at 209°E 61.5 S we come to Keeler Crater and Trumpler Crater-
one superimposed on top of the other.
Keeler and Trumpler Crater (the latter is the bottom crater in this image)
Trumpler Crater is in the far southern part of the Martian highlands. This HiRISE image shows a frozen terrain typical at these latitudes. The surface is mantled by a deposit that is postulated to be largely a mix of dust and ice. However, many of the higher hills have had this mantle removed and the older rocks are exposed. In some parts of Mars there is good evidence for ice having flowed from higher to lower ground, but there is no such evidence here. Perhaps the mantling deposit never formed on the tops of these hills or it was preferentially removed from these places. In the flatter locations, the mantling deposit is completely covered by small cracks that form a polygonal network. These are clearest in the southern part of the image, where the sun is almost parallel to the surface, producing dramatic shadows. Such polygons are a common feature in permafrost.
Going directly north there is Wright crater centered at 209.5° E 58.5° S.
Wright Crater (large crater in center of image)
Wright Crater is 115 kilometers in diameter and is named after William Hammond Wright (November 4, 1871 – May 16, 1959) who was an American astronomer. He was director of the Lick Observatory from 1935 until 1942.
To the northwest of the latter crater is Kuiper Crater at 202.5°E 57.5°S.
Kuiper Crater (in center)
Kuiper Crater is 87 kilometers in diameter and was named after Gerard Peter Kuiper; born Gerrit Pieter Kuiper; December 7, 1905 – December 23, 1973) was a Netherlands-born American astronomer after whom the Kuiper belt was named.
Almost directly north of Kuiper Crater is Nordenskiöld Crater centered at 202.5°E 53°S.
Nordenskiöld Crater
Nordenskiöld Crater is 89 kilometers in diameter and is named after Friherr Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (18 November 1832, Helsinki, Finland – 12 August 1901, Dalbyö, Södermanland, Sweden) was a Finnish baron, botanist, geologist, mineralogist and arctic explorer of Finland-Swedish origin.
Tader Valles
To the northeast of this crater is the Tader Valles a set of small channels in the Phaethontis Region found at 49.1° south latitude and 208° east longitude. Tader Valles, an ancient name for the present day Segura River in Spain, is a set of small channels at mid-southern latitudes that is filled by smooth material with rounded margins. It is possible that this material is snow covered by a mantle of dust or dirt. Tader Valles is 200 kilometers in length.
To the north of Tader Valles is Li Fan Crater centered at 207°E 46.5°S.
Li Fan Crater
Li Fan Crater is 104.8 kilometers in diameter and is named after Li Fan who was a Chinese astronomer during the Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD).
Just to the northwest of Li Fan crater is Ptolemaeus Crater centered at 202.5°E 46.5°S.
Ptolemaeus Crater
Mars-3 Lander Hardware Found?
This set of images shows what might be hardware from the Soviet Union's 1971 Mars 3 lander, seen in a pair of images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The possible Mars 3 lander hardware was found by an Internet group of Russian citizen enthusiasts who follow news about Mars and NASA's Curiosity rover. In 1971, the former Soviet Union launched the Mars 2 and Mars 3 missions to Mars. Each consisted of an orbiter plus a lander. Both orbiter missions succeeded, although the surface of Mars was obscured by a planet-encircling dust storm. The Mars 2 lander crashed. Mars 3 became the first successful soft landing on the Red Planet, but stopped transmitting after just 20 seconds for unknown reasons. The predicted landing site was at latitude 45 degrees south, longitude 202 degrees east, in the Ptolemaeus Crater. HiRISE acquired a large image at this location in November 2007. This image contains 1.8 billion pixels of data, so about 2,500 typical computer screens would be needed to view the entire image at full resolution. Promising candidates for the hardware from Mars 3 were found on December 31, 2012. Vitali Egorov from St. Petersburg, Russia, heads the largest Russian Internet community about Curiosity. His subscribers did the preliminary search for Mars 3 via crowd-sourcing. Egorov modeled what Mars 3 hardware pieces should look like in a HiRISE image, and the group carefully searched the many small features in this large image, finding what appears to be viable candidates in the southern part of the scene. Each candidate has a size and shape consistent with the expected hardware, and they are arranged on the surface as expected from the entry, descent and landing sequence.
Mars 3 Lander model at the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics in Russia
Ptolemaeus Crater is a crater on Mars found in the Phaethontis Region. It is 165.18 km in diameter and was named after Claudius Ptolemaeus, a Greco-Egyptian astronomer (c. AD 90-160).
Hipparchus Crater
Hipparchus Crater is northeast of Ptolemaeus Crater centered at 208.5°E 45°S. Hipparchus Crater is 93 kilometers in diameter and is named after Hipparchus of Nicaea; c. 190 – c. 120 BC), who was a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician of the Hellenistic period.
Next we come to Newton Crater centered at 202°E 41°S. Newton Crater is a large crater on Mars, with a diameter close to 300 km. It is located south of the planet's equator in the heavily cratered highlands of Terra Sirenum. The impact that formed Newton likely occurred more than 3 billion years ago. The crater contains smaller craters within its basin and is particularly notable for gully formations that are presumed to be indicative of past liquid water flows. Many small channels exist in this area; they are further evidence of liquid water.
Gullies near Newton Crater, as seen by HiRISE.
The Phaethontis Region is the location of many gullies that may be due to recent flowing water. Some are found in Newton Crater. Gullies occur on steep slopes, especially that of craters. Gullies are believed to be relatively young because they have few, if any craters, and they lie on top of sand dunes which are young. Usually, each gully has an alcove, channel, and apron. Although many ideas have been put forward to explain them, the most popular involve liquid water either coming from an aquifer or left over from old glaciers. There is disagreement in the scientific community as to whether or not the recent gully streaks were formed by liquid water (some suspect dry ice CO2). Some suggest the flows were merely dry sand flows. Others suggest it may be liquid brine near the surface, but the exact source of the water and the mechanism behind its motion will not understood until we send someone there to find out. Analysis of Martian sandstones, using data obtained from orbital spectrometry, suggests that the waters that previously existed on the surface of Mars would have had too high a salinity to support most Earth-like life. Tosca et al. found that the Martian water in the locations they studied all had water activity, aw ≤ 0.78 to 0.86—a level fatal to most Terrestrial life.
Gullies and Craters on the Floor of Newton Basin HiRISE DTM
Microscopic life known as Haloarchaea, however, are able to live in hyper-saline solutions, up to the saturation point. In June 2000, possible evidence for current liquid water flowing at the surface of Mars was discovered in the form of flood-like gullies. Additional similar images were published in 2006, taken by the Mars Global Surveyor, that suggested that water occasionally flows on the surface of Mars. The images did not actually show flowing water. Rather, they showed changes in steep crater walls and sediment deposits, providing the strongest evidence yet that water coursed through them as recently as several years ago.
Newton Crater Activity
The region nearby is dominated by heavily cratered highlands and low-lying areas forming relatively smooth plains. The Electris deposits is 100–200 m thick deposit that is light-toned and appears to be weak because few boulders are seen associated with it. The deposit mostly covers ground from 30° S to 45° S and from 160° E to 200° E. So, some of it lies in the Phaethontis Region and the rest in Eridania Region. Recent work with HiRISE images lead scientists to believe that the deposit is an accumulation of loess that initially were produced from volcanic materials in Tharsis or other volcanic centers. (Loess is an Aeolian sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown silt, typically in the 20–50 micrometer size range, twenty percent or less clay and the balance equal parts sand and silt that are loosely cemented by calcium carbonate). Using a global climate model, a group of researchers headed by Laura Kerber found that the Electris deposits could have easily been formed from ash from the volcanoes Apollinaris Mons, Arsia Mons, and possibly Pavonis Mons. Its named after one of the Classical albedo features on Mars.
Electris Deposit, as seen by HiRISE. Electris deposit is light-toned and smooth in the image in contrast to rough materials below-location is Phaethontis Region.
Deposits in Electris
This observation reveals a portion of a long outcrop of a deposit in the Electris region of Mars. The Electris deposits occur over a range of landforms and relief and the process(es) responsible for their emplacement remain speculative. Close examination of the outcrops reveal layering that in some places appear to include meter-scale blocks.
Unconformable Deposits in Electris Region
Comparison with other HiRISE images of the deposit will enable more detailed mapping of its extent and nature and should provide new insight into the origin of these enigmatic materials.
Magnetic Stripes and Plate Tectonics: The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) discovered magnetic stripes in the crust of Mars, especially in the Phaethontis and Eridania Regions (Terra Cimmeria and Terra Sirenum).The magnetometer on MGS discovered 100 km wide stripes of magnetized crust running roughly parallel for up to 2000 km. These stripes alternate in polarity with the north magnetic pole of one pointing up from the surface and the north magnetic pole of the next pointing down. When similar stripes were discovered on Earth in the 1960s, they were taken as evidence of plate tectonics. Researchers believe these magnetic stripes on Mars are evidence for an short, early period of plate tectonic activity. When the rocks became solid they retained the magnetism that existed at the time. A magnetic field of a planet is believed to be caused by fluid motions under the surface. However, there are some differences, between the magnetic stripes on Earth and those on Mars. The Martian stripes are wider, much more strongly magnetized, and do not appear to spread out from a middle crustal spreading zone. Because the area containing the magnetic stripes is about 4 billion years old, it is believed that the global magnetic field probably lasted for only the first few hundred million years of Mars' life, when the temperature of the molten iron in the planet's core might have been high enough to mix it into a magnetic dynamo. There are no magnetic fields near large impact basins like Hellas. The shock of the impact may have erased the remnant magnetization in the rock. So, magnetism produced by early fluid motion in the core would not have existed after the impacts. When molten rock containing magnetic material, such as hematite (Fe2O3), cools and solidifies in the presence of a magnetic field, it becomes magnetized and takes on the polarity of the background field. This magnetism is lost only if the rock is subsequently heated above a particular temperature (the Curie point which is 770°C for iron). The magnetism left in rocks is a record of the magnetic field when the rock solidified.
This image is a map of Martian magnetic fields in the southern highlands near the Terra Cimmeria and Terra Sirenum regions, centered around 180 degrees longitude from the equator to the pole. It is where magnetic stripes possibly resulting from crustal movement are most prominent. The bands are oriented approximately east - west and are about 100 miles wide and 600 miles long, although the longest band stretches more than 1200 miles. The false blue and red colors represent invisible magnetic fields in the Martian crust that point in opposite directions. The magnetic fields appear to be organized in bands, with adjacent bands pointing in opposite directions, giving these stripes a striking similarity to patterns seen in the Earth's crust at the mid-oceanic ridges. The bands of magnetized crust apparently formed in the distant past when Mars had an active dynamo, or hot core of molten metal, which generated a global magnetic field. Mars was geologically active, with molten rock rising from below cooling at the surface and forming new crust. As the new crust solidified, the magnetic field that permeated the rock was "frozen" in the crust. Periodically, conditions in the dynamo changed and the global magnetic field reversed direction. The oppositely directed magnetic field was then frozen into newer crust. Like a Martian tape recorder, the crust has preserved a fossil record of the magnetic field directions that prevailed at different times in the ancient past. When the planet's hot core cooled, the dynamo ceased and the global magnetic field of Mars vanished. However, a record of the magnetic field was preserved in the crust and detected by the Global Surveyor instrument. The mission's map of Martian magnetic regions may help solve another mystery -- the origin of a striking difference in appearance between the smooth, sparsely cratered northern lowlands of Mars and the heavily cratered southern highlands. The map reveals that the northern regions are largely free of magnetism (although they might be buried by an ancient sea floor), indicating the northern crust formed after the dynamo died. The map also identifies an area in the southern highlands as the oldest surviving unmodified crust on Mars. This area on Mars is where the magnetic stripes are most prominent. The bands are oriented approximately east-to-west and are about 100 miles wide and 600 miles long, although the longest band stretches more than 1,200 miles.
To the northwest of Newton Crater we cross the Sirenum Fossae and come to Mariner Crater centered at 196°E 35°S.
Mariner Crater and the Sirenum Fossae
The crack that appears in the upper image is almost always referred to as a "ridge" -- as that was how it was described at the time the image was first released. The crack is part of the Sirenum Fossae ("fossae" means "fractures" or "ditches" not ridges.) The crack also appears in the lower image (just barely visible from the lower right corner rising at a 60+ degree angle toward the upper center) . Mariner Crater is a crater on Mars with a diameter of 170 km. it is located in the Phaethontis Region. It was named for Mariner IV spacecraft. In fact it is probably the best image that was taken with the Mariner IV spacecraft.
Crater wall inside Mariner Crater, as seen by HiRISE.
Mariner 4 probe performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first pictures of the Martian surface in 1965. The photographs showed an arid Mars without rivers, oceans, or any signs of life. This is probably the best picture that our first spacecraft to fly by Mars took. Image located in Phaethontis Region:
Early Image of Mariner Crater
Further, it revealed that the surface (at least the parts that it photographed) was covered in craters, indicating a possible lack of plate tectonics and weathering. The probe also found that Mars has no global magnetic field that would protect the planet from potentially life-threatening cosmic rays. The probe was able to calculate the atmospheric pressure on the planet to be about 0.6 kPa (compared to Earth's 101.3 kPa), meaning that liquid water could not exist on the planet's surface. After Mariner 4, the search for life on Mars changed to a search for bacteria-like living organisms rather than for multicellular organisms, as the environment was clearly too harsh for these. But the knowledge we possess today tells us larger life could exist on the planet 3 meters (9 feet+) below the surface where it is possible that the harmful radiation bombarding the planet’s surface would not kill them.
Cross Crater located on the northern border of the Phaethontis Region is located at 202.5°E 30°S.
A Deposit on Mars Layered alunite-kaolinite deposit near Cross Crater on Mars
Stratigraphy of Potential Hydrothermal System in Cross Crater
Cross Crater is 67. 5 kilometers in diameter and is named after the astronomer Charles Arthur Cross.
Terra Sirenum: is a large region in the southern hemisphere of the planet Mars. It is centered at 39.7°S 150°W and covers 3900 km at its broadest extent. It covers latitudes 10 to 70 South and longitudes 110 to 180 W. is an upland area notable for massive cratering including the large Newton Crater. Terra Sirenum is in the Phaethontis Region of Mars. A low area in Terra Sirenum is believed to have once held a lake that eventually drained through Ma'adim Vallis:
Terra Sirenum Possible Chloride Deposits (salt)
Evidence of deposits of chloride based minerals in Terra Sirenum was discovered by the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter's Thermal Emission Imaging System in March 2008. The deposits are approximately 3.5 to 3.9 billion years old. This suggests that near-surface water was widespread in early Martian history, which has implications for the possible existence of Martian life. Besides finding chlorides, MRO discovered iron/magnesium Smectites which are formed from long exposure in water. Based on chloride deposits and hydrated phyllosilicates, Alfonso Davila and others believe there is an ancient lakebed in Terra Sirenum that had an area of 30,000 km2 and was 200 meters deep.
Chloride Salt Deposits within a Channel in Terra Sirenum HiRISE DTM 205.4°E 33.4°S
The Terra Sirenum Area
Going into the central area of the Phaethontis Region we come to Nansen Crater centered at 219.5°E 50°S.
Nansen Crater
Nansen Crater is 81 kilometers in diameter and is named after Fridtjof Nansen; 10 October 1861 – 13 May 1930) who was a Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Going southwest from there we come to Millman Crater centered 210.5°E 54°S.
Olivine-Rich Sand Dunes in Millman Crater
Millman Crater is 75 kilometers in diameter and is named after Peter Mackenzie Millman (August 10, 1906 – December 11, 1990) who was a Canadian astronomer.
The Icaria Fossae (note the dust devil tracks in this image)
In the east central area in the Phaethontis Region is the Icaria Fossae. It is a trough with its location centered at 46.4° south latitude and 230° east longitude. It is 280 km long and was named after an albedo feature at 44S, 130W.
Lava Oozing into Pickering Crater
This image captures a fairly rare situation. In general, as lava flows along, it fills in low points and holes it encounters in its path and flows around high points such as hills and ridges. In this image there are two lava flows interacting with an impact crater. Although an impact crater approximately 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) wide such as this is a deep hole in the ground (likely a couple hundred meters or several hundred feet deep), it is surrounded by a rim crest that is actually higher than the surrounding terrain, lifted up during the powerful impact that formed the crater originally. On the south side of the crater, a smooth-surfaced lava flow (with some knobs in the southwest) has come in contact with the exterior of the crater rim, burying any sign of ejecta from the crater and covering most of the rim, almost up to the rim crest.
Pickering Crater Wide Angle Shot (right)
