This image covers part of a proposed rover landing site in the Mawrth Vallis region of Mars. The portion visible here is roughly 200 meters, or 650 feet, across, and shows an enhanced color view of light-toned rocks ranging in color from light blue to tan.

Polygonal fracture patterns (similar to a tiled floor) are visible on the surfaces of some of these rocks, and yellow/brown ridges protruding from the surface may be composed of hard minerals or cemented sediments formed when water flowed through fractures in the ancient bedrock. Dark blue dunes or ripples of wind-blown sand are also visible on the surface here.

Elsewhere in the image, exposures of the light-toned rocks in the steep walls of impact craters reveal that these rocks are finely layered, similar to sedimentary rocks on Earth. The orbiting infrared spectrometers OMEGA and CRISM have demonstrated that these layered rocks contain clay minerals, which can only form in the presence of water. The different colors of the rocks typically reflect differences in composition, suggesting that multiple styles or episodes of water activity may be recorded in the rock record here.

These characteristics have made Mawrth Vallis a prime candidate landing site for future Mars rover missions, including NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory due to launch in 2009.

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona. The image data were processed using the U.S. Geological Survey’s ISIS3 software.