File:Columbia Hills (Infrared View) - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (50524267953).png

False color infrared image of the Columbia Hills in Gusev Crater. This region was explored by the Spirit rover between 2004 to 2010. The mission landing site was chosen with the expectation that the flat terrain of Gusev Crater were sediments deposited in a lake fed by Ma'adim Vallis, a large canyon system that empties into Gusev. However, it became clear soon after landing that the crater is filled by a vast lava plain. Although lake sediments are probably present in Gusev, they are buried by these lava flows. A greater of diversity of rocks were seen in the Columbia Hills, many of which appeared to be sedimentary and volcaniclastic rocks. This has led some researchers to suggest that the Columbia Hills represent an exposure of lakebed sediments that were folded towards the surface along a thrust fault (one of several in Gusev).

Images of rocks in the visible range of the spectrum (380-780 nm) usually show very small changes in color. However, rocks are much more colorful in the 1000 nm to 2600 nm range due to the presence of strong absorption features related to common transition metals (such as iron) in mineral crystals. These differences help highlight the difference between the relatively bland rocks of the Gusev lava plains and the more compositionally diverse rocks exposed in the Columbia Hills.

This false color was created using the CRISM imaging spectrometer. Each pixel of a CRISM image contains a 500 point spectrum, from which a color can be reconstructed. This reconstructed color was overlaid on a higher-resolution image taken with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Context Camera (CTX), which simultaneously took a photo while CRISM was collecting data.

This image wast taken on December 12, 2006. It uses CRISM observation FRT000035d0 and CTX observation P02_001777_1653_XI_14S184W.