Cerberus Fossae – shaped by volcanism and tectonics
Cerberus Fossae – shaped by volcanism and tectonics
The landscape in the Cerberus Fossae region appears as if cut by a knife. The tectonic fracture structures were formed less than 100 million years ago, perhaps even only 10 million years ago. This can also be seen in the profiles of the fossae, which are bound by extremely steep walls that are almost vertical in places and more than 500 metres high in some areas. The SEIS seismometer on NASA’s InSight lander was able to localise two quakes here, about 1700 kilometres east of the landing site, quite accurately, and another one with somewhat greater uncertainty. The image was created from data acquired on 27 January 2018 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board the European Mars Express spacecraft.
