MERIDIANI PLANUM

'Meridiani Planum' is a plain located 2 degrees south of Mars' equator (centered at ), in the westernmost portion of Terra Meridiani. It hosts a rare occurrence of gray crystalline hematite. On Earth, hematite is often formed in hot springs or in standing pools of water; therefore, many scientists believe that the hematite at Meridiani Planum may be indicative of ancient hot springs or that the environment contained liquid water. The hematite is part of a layered sedimentary rock formation about 200 to 800 meters thick. Other features of Meridiani Planum include volcanic basalt and impact craters.

Contents

Mars rover ''Opportunity''

Craters within Meridiani Planum

See also

External links

Mars rover ''Opportunity''

In 2004, Meridiani Planum was the landing site for the second of NASA's two Mars Exploration Rovers, named ''Opportunity''. It had also been the target landing site for Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander, which was cancelled after the failures of the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander missions.
Results from ''Opportunity'' indicate that its landing site was once saturated for a long period of time with liquid water, possibly of high salinity and acidity. Features that suggest this include cross-bedded sediments, the presence of many small spherical pebbles that appear to be concretions, vugs inside rocks, and the presence of large amounts of magnesium sulfate and other sulfate-rich minerals such as jarosite.

Craters within Meridiani Planum

★ Airy Crater - 40 kilometre (km) in diameter and about 375 km west-southwest of ''Opportunity''

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★ Airy-0 - Lies within the Airy crater, and defines the Martian Prime Meridian

★ Argo Crater - Visited by ''Opportunity''

★ Beagle Crater - Visited by ''Opportunity''

★ Beer Crater

★ Eagle Crater - Landing site of ''Opportunity'' and 30 metre diameter

★ Emma Dean Crater - Visited by ''Opportunity''

★ Endurance Crater - Visited by ''Opportunity''

★ Erebus Crater - Visited by ''Opportunity''

★ Mädler Crater

★ Victoria Crater - Being visited by ''Opportunity'' and 750 metre diameter

★ Vostok Crater - Visited by ''Opportunity''

See also

★ List of plains on Mars

★ Geography of Mars

External links

★ Google Mars zoomable map - centered on Meridiani Planum

★ The sedimentary rocks of Sinus Meridiani: Five key observations from data acquired by the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey orbiters