Mars: Giant Gully in Kaiser Crater Dunes | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Mars: Giant Gully in Kaiser Crater Dunes | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

HiRISE has been monitoring this dune field since 2008, and it changes every year from gully erosion in the winter and blowing sand in the summer. Kaiser Crater is 207km in diameter (129 miles) and is located in Noachis Terra west of Hellas Planitia. Noachis Terra is an extensive southern landmass (terra) of the planet Mars. It lies west of the giant Hellas impact basin, roughly between the latitudes −20° and −80° and longitudes 30° west and 30° east. It is in the Noachis quadrangle.

This cutout shows an especially large gully. The bright white materials are seasonal frost, persisting on shaded slopes.

This HiRISE image was captured when NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) was at an altitude of 252 kilometers (156 miles).

The MRO is a spacecraft designed to study the geology and climate of Mars, to provide reconnaissance of future landing sites, and to relay data from surface missions back to Earth. It was launched on August 12, 2005, and reached Mars on March 10, 2006. 

The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE). It was built by BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD), Washington.

For more information on MRO, visit:

science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-reconnaissance-orbiter

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Image Date:  Dec. 29, 2019
Release Date: May 31, 2025

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