Which Martian crater contains the layered mound Aeolis Mons?

The story behind the answer

Which Martian crater contains the layered mound Aeolis Mons? Gale crater contains it.

Gale is a 154-kilometre-wide impact crater in Mars’s Aeolis quadrangle. Its central mound, officially called Aeolis Mons and commonly known as Mount Sharp, rises about 5.5 kilometres above parts of the crater floor. The mound’s visible layers are made of sedimentary material, probably shaped by a combination of deposition and later wind erosion.

Evidence gathered by NASA’s Curiosity rover indicates that Gale once held an ancient lake, with water-laid mudstones, river channels and possible deltas preserved in the crater’s rocks. Those layers give scientists a record of changing Martian environments over billions of years.

A common mix-up is Gusev crater, where the Spirit rover landed. Victoria and Endurance are also Martian craters explored by rovers, but neither contains Aeolis Mons. Curiosity landed in Gale on 6 August 2012 and has been studying the mound and surrounding terrain ever since.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

Add question to a list

Choose a list to keep this question in: