Nilokeras Scopulus

False color oblique view of Nilokeras Scopulus looking north. The cratered plateau at top is Tempe Terra. The dark greenish, smooth area at bottom is floodplain of Kasei Valles. The light blue area at bottom left is a portion of the (younger) central channel of N. Kasei Vallis. Image is Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter (MOLA) colorized elevation overlying Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) Infrared (IR) daytime mosaic from Mars Odyssey spacecraft. Yellow and light green represent high elevations; dark green and blue are lower elevations. Image is approximately 175 km across. Vertical exaggeration is 3X.
Nilokeras Scopulus based on THEMIS day-time image

Nilokeras Scopulus is a long escarpment (cliff) in the northern hemisphere of the planet Mars. It is located along the southeastern boundary of the Tempe Terra plateau and forms the northern valley wall (wallrock boundary) of the downstream portion of the immense Kasei Valles outflow channel system. The escarpment is 765 km long[citation needed][1] and ranges from 1 to a little over 2 km (3300–6600 ft) in height.[2]

For most of its length, Nilokeras Scopulus lies between lat. 31° and 32° N. It trends west-east, extending from approximately long. 297° to 309° E.[1] The escarpment curves northward at the eastern edge of Tempe Terra where the northern segment of Kasei Valles debouches into Chryse and southwestern Acidalia Planitiae.

  1. ^ a b USGS Gazetter of Planetary Nomenclature. http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/4277.
  2. ^ Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter (MOLA) gridded dataset from JMars. (cf. Christensen, P. et al. (2007). New Insights about Mars from the Creation and Analysis of Mars Global Datasets. American Geophysical Union, abstract #P11E-01. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007AGUFM.P11E..01C.)