Ganges Chasma -- or Gangis Chasma (as it is sometimes spelled) -- is a several kilometers-deep side canyon at the east end of the vast Valles Marineris trough system. In several places, portions of the steep walls of Ganges Chasma have collapsed down into the chasm, creating large landslide deposits.

Toe of Ganges Chasma landslide. Photo: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image acquired in 2001 shows the margin of one of the landslides in Ganges Chasma. The linear grooved and ridged pattern of the upper surface of the landslide results from shear as the mass of rock and debris was moving across the landscape. When the landslide occurred, the debris was moving from the upper right toward the lower left. Dark sand dunes are banked up against the landslide deposit margins, indicating that considerable time has elapsed since the landslide occurred. The scene is illuminated from the upper left.

The box at upper left shows the landslide location in Ganges Chasma, and the 500 m scale bar equals ~547 yards.

Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO.