Image Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU

Context image credit: NASA/JPL/MOLA
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A 22 km-diameter crater has been sliced by the tectonic forces that produced the rift known as Sirenum Fossae. The orientation of this rift is roughly radial to the great Tharsis volcano Arsia Mons, perhaps indicating a link between the formation of the rift and the volcano. Note how the rift cuts through a jumble of mounds on the floor of the crater. This indicates a sequence of events beginning with the formation of the crater followed by an infilling of material that was then eroded into the mounds and ultimately split open by the shifting martian crust.