Large craters outside the ellipseLong/lat (by decreasing size):1- 340.81E, 24.24N2- 340.68E, 24.30N3- 341.28E, 24.25N4- 340.98E, 24.32N5- 341.02E, 23.61N

Rational:Large craters around the ellipse are natural cross-section of the full clay layered unit, going down there walls would enable the instruments to study every layer over a total thickness of >100 m.

Morphology and mineralogy: Large craters (diameter > 2 km) around the ellipse offer nice exposures of the layered unit, over depth that reach >150 m. Walls are steeper than the old craters inside the ellipse, finding a path inside the crater may be harzardous. Those craters reveal the full compositional stratigraphy of the landing site on there walls.

MSL tasks: At large scale, study the layering of the two sub-units, the transition from one to the other. At small scale, study the layering, the grain structure, the mineralogy and chemistry of the rocks and the variations from one to the other sub-unit and within each sub-unit. Moreover the effects of the crater impacts on the rocks will be studied.

HRSC mosaic with HRSC nadir & color images

1

23

4

5

2 km

CTX mosaic with HRSC color images

200 m

1

2

HiRISE color image 12873_2045

HiRISE mosaic with HiRISE color images

500 m

3

This crater shows color variation on one side of its walls (indicated by white arrows) that might indicate alteration by fluid circulating in fractures.

HiRISE color image

200 m

4

CTX image with HRSC color image

2 km

5

This crater impacted on the lobate ejecta blanket of the 12km large crater south of the landing ellipse. Some lobes are indicated by white dashed lines.