New HRSC Mars Express images of the Elysium frozen sea complex

Murray, John B.; Balme, Matthew R.; Page, David; Muller, Jan-Peter; Kim, Jung-Rack; Morley, Jeremy and Neukum, Gerhard (2006). New HRSC Mars Express images of the Elysium frozen sea complex. In: European Geosciences Union General Assembly, 2-7 Apr 2006, Vienna, Austria.

Abstract

Ten new passes have been made of the frozen sea area of Elysium imaged near the equator of Mars early in the Mars Express mission by the High Resolution Stereo Camera. These new images, taken in August and September 2005, provide complete coverage of much of the western part of the area at resolutions down to 13 metres. Together with THEMIS and MOC NA images, they show an interconnected series of
different flooded areas hundreds of kilometres in extent, and the whole complex may be as large as 800 x 2500 km – comparable to the Great Lakes in North America. With a water depth of 50 metres, the total volume of water would have been between 5000 and 75,000 km3. Each sea is connected by a channel system, sometimes dissecting through layered terrain. There are between 4 and 7 layers, suggesting that there may have been several previous episodes of flooding and deposition here. The difference
in sea surface level between the different bodies of water is up to 200 metres.

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