Perspective view of Hellespontus Montes
Perspective view of Hellespontus Montes
The presence of snowfall in the mountains situated on the western reaches of Hellas Planitia was likely in the early days of Mars. The precipitation compacted to ice that formed glaciers, which, exposed to natural pressure, started to flow and were covered by dust from the atmosphere as well as boulders and detritus. This sluggish mass of ice spilled into the crater depressions like thick porridge, forming deposits with the peculiar patterns shown here in the foreground, known as concentric crater fill. In addition, the left half of the image depicts several expanding, significantly younger fields of dunes.
Copyright note:
As a joint undertaking by DLR, ESA and FU Berlin, the Mars Express HRSC images are published under a Creative Commons licence since December 2014: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. This licence will also apply to all HRSC images released to date.