Ismenius Lacus quadrangle

Ismenius Lacus quadrangle
Map of Ismenius Lacus quadrangle from Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) data. The highest elevations are red and the lowest are blue.
Coordinates47°30′N 330°00′W / 47.5°N 330°W / 47.5; -330
Image of the Ismenius Lacus Quadrangle (MC-5). The northern area contains relatively smooth plains; the central area, mesas and buttes; and the southern area, numerous craters.

The Ismenius Lacus quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The quadrangle is located in the northwestern portion of Mars' eastern hemisphere and covers 0° to 60° east longitude (300° to 360° west longitude) and 30° to 65° north latitude. The quadrangle uses a Lambert conformal conic projection at a nominal scale of 1:5,000,000 (1:5M). The Ismenius Lacus quadrangle is also referred to as MC-5 (Mars Chart-5).[1] The southern and northern borders of the Ismenius Lacus quadrangle are approximately 3,065 km (1,905 mi) and 1,500 km (930 mi) wide, respectively. The north-to-south distance is about 2,050 km (1,270 mi) (slightly less than the length of Greenland).[2] The quadrangle covers an approximate area of 4.9 million square km, or a little over 3% of Mars' surface area.[3] The Ismenius Lacus quadrangle contains parts of Acidalia Planitia, Arabia Terra, Vastitas Borealis, and Terra Sabaea.[4]

The Ismenius Lacus quadrangle contains Deuteronilus Mensae and Protonilus Mensae, two places that are of special interest to scientists. They contain evidence of present and past glacial activity. They also have a landscape unique to Mars, called fretted terrain. The largest crater in the area is Lyot Crater, which contains channels probably carved by liquid water.[5][6]

  1. ^ Davies, M.E.; Batson, R.M.; Wu, S.S.C. "Geodesy and Cartography" in Kieffer, H.H.; Jakosky, B.M.; Snyder, C.W.; Matthews, M.S., Eds. Mars. University of Arizona Press: Tucson, 1992.
  2. ^ Distances calculated using NASA World Wind measuring tool. http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/ Archived 2018-01-06 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ^ Approximated by integrating latitudinal strips with area of R^2 (L1-L2)(cos(A)dA) from 30° to 65° latitude; where R = 3889 km, A is latitude, and angles expressed in radians. See: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1340223/calculating-area-enclosed-by-arbitrary-polygon-on-earths-surface.
  4. ^ "Planetary Names: Search Results".
  5. ^ Carter, J.; Poulet, F.; Bibring, J.-P.; Murchie, S. (2010). "Detection of Hydrated Silicates in Crustal Outcrops in the Northern Plains of Mars". Science. 328 (5986): 1682–1686. Bibcode:2010Sci...328.1682C. doi:10.1126/science.1189013. PMID 20576889. S2CID 7337256.
  6. ^ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news.cfm?release=2010-209[permanent dead link]