Image Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU

Context image credit: NASA/JPL/MOLA
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The style of erosion along the highlands-lowlands boundary of southern Elysium Planitia has produced a strange pattern of troughs that look like the skin of a reptile. In reality, a very clear process of landscape degradation is evident in this image. Some process has produced polygon-shaped troughs that create zones of weakness in the uppermost crust. It is likely that wind-blown particles deepen and widen the troughs, produ- cing isolated knobs and mesas. Ultimately, the erosional reworking of the landscape is so complete that all signs of the upper layer are removed, leaving the smooth lowland surface to the north.