page_title: Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle
hierarchical_section_title: Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle
caption_attribution_description: English: MOLA Topographic Map of Margartifer Sinus Quadrangle (MC-19) on the planet Mars. NOTE: Converted the original PDF file to a PNG File (via GIMP v2.8.4 program) - and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
context_page_description: The Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey Astrogeology Research Program. The Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle is also referred to as MC-19. The Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle covers the area from 0° to 45° west longitude and 0° to 30° south latitude on Mars. Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle contains Margaritifer Terra and parts of Xanthe Terra, Noachis Terra, Arabia Terra, and Meridiani Planum.
  The name of this quadrangle means "pearl bay" after the pearl coast at Cape Comorin in South India.
  This quadrangle shows many signs of past water with evidence of lakes, deltas, ancient rivers, inverted channels, and chaos regions that released water. Margaritifer Sinus contains some of the longest lake-chain systems on Mars, perhaps because of a wetter climate, more groundwater, or some of each factor. The Samara/Himera lake-chain system is about 1800 km long; the Parara/Loire valley network and lake-chain system is about 1100 km long. A low area between Parana Valles and Loire Vallis is believed to have once held a lake. The 154 km diameter Holden Crater also once held a lake.
context_section_description: The Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The Margaritifer Sinus  quadrangle is also referred to as MC-19 (Mars Chart-19).  The Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle covers the area from 0° to 45° west longitude and 0° to 30° south latitude on Mars. Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle contains Margaritifer Terra and parts of Xanthe Terra, Noachis Terra, Arabia Terra, and Meridiani Planum.
  The name of this quadrangle means "pearl bay" after the pearl coast at Cape Comorin in South India.
  This quadrangle shows many signs of past water with evidence of lakes, deltas, ancient rivers, inverted channels, and chaos regions that released water. Margaritifer Sinus contains some of the longest lake-chain systems on Mars, perhaps because of a wetter climate, more groundwater, or some of each factor.  The Samara/Himera lake-chain system is about 1800 km long; the Parara/Loire valley network and lake-chain system is about 1100 km long. A low area between Parana Valles and Loire Vallis is believed to have once held a lake. The 154 km diameter Holden Crater also once held a lake.  Near Holden Crater is a graben, called Erythraea Fossa, that once held a chain of three lakes.
  This region contains abundant clay-bearing sediments of Noachian age.  Spectral studies with CRISM showed Fe/Mg-phyllosilicates, a type of clay. Biological materials can be preserved in clay.  It is believed that this clay was formed in near-neutral pH water.  The clay was not mixed with sulfates which form under acid conditions.  Life is probably more likely to form under neutral pH conditions.
  This region of Mars is famous because the Opportunity Rover landed there on January 25, 2004, at 1.94°S and 354.47°E (5.53° W). NASA declared the mission over in a press conference on February 13, 2019. This mission lasted almost 15 years.
  Russia's Mars 6 crash-landed in Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle at 23.9 S and 19.42 W.
caption: Map of Margartifer Sinus quadrangle from Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) data. The highest elevations are red and the lowest are blue.
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