Volcanic ash deposits in Meridiani Planum
Date: 05 October 2011
Depicts: Volcanic ash deposits in Meridiani Planum
Copyright: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Meridiani Planum, at the northern edge of the southern highlands of Mars, lies between the volcanic Tharsis Region to the west and the low-lying Hellas Planitia impact basin to the southeast. Through a telescope, Meridiani Planum is a striking, dark feature, close to the Martian equator. This dark material appears to resemble volcanic ash, which is predominantly composed of minerals such as pyroxene and olivine. Orbiter and surface observations show that water was once present on or near the surface in Meridiani Planum.
This region extends 127 km by 63 km and covers an area of roughly 8000 km², about the size of the island of Cyprus.
ESA has identified the primary landing site for the ExoMars Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module (EDM) in a flat and rock-free area of the Meridiani Planum region. The EDM is scheduled for launch in March 2016, arriving at the Red Planet approximately nine months later.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO License. 
