Geologic map of the Margaritifer Sinus Quadrangle of Mars

The Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle lies within a broad north-sloping trough, the Chryse lowland, between the elevated Tharsis plateau to the west and the cratered upland to the east. The rugged, uniquely martian chaotic terrain is best developed in this quadrangle. Sinuous furrows a few kilometers wide and as much as several hundred kilometers long cover most of the quadrangle; in several places are broad regions many tens of kilometers wide that appear to be complex channel systems. None of these features can be correlated with markings seen from Earth. The major part of the quadrangle consists of moderately cratered material containing craters of different morphologic types. This region is typical of the most cratered regions of Mars (Jones, 1974), having been previously mapped as cratered terrain, undivided (Carr and others, 1973), as moderately cratered terrain (McCauley and others, 1972), and as plateau plains (Wilhelms, 1974).