Arabia Quadrangle - Deformation Bands

Deformation Bands

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showed deformation bands in Capen Crater, located in the Arabia quadrangle. Deformation bands are small faults with very small displacements. They often proceed large faults. They develop in porous rocks, like sandstone. They can restrict and/or change the flow of fluids like water and oil. They are common in the Colorado Plateau. Good examples form in the Entrada Sandstone in the San Rafael Swell in Utah. The bands represent failure by localized frictional sliding. The bands on Mars are a few meters wide and up to a few kilometers long. They are caused by the compression or stretching of underground layers. Erosion of overlying layers make them visible at the surface. Capen Crater was unnamed before the discovery of deformation bands. It was named for Charles Capen, who studied Mars at JPL's Table Mountain Observatory in California and at Lowell Observatory in Arizona.

• The group of lines running up and down in the image are believed to be deformation bands. They can be thought of as small faults.