Image Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU

Context image credit: NASA/JPL/MOLA
View on map

 

Detailed information on this image is available at the THEMIS Data Releases website.

 

Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images.

 

At the easternmost end of Valles Marineris, a rugged, jumbled terrain known as chaos displays a stratigraphy that could be described as precarious. Perched on top of the jumbled blocks is another layer of sedimentary material that is in the process of being eroded off the top. This material is etched by the wind into yardangs before it ultimately is stripped off to reveal the existing chaos. Some of the material ends up in the surrounding depressions, forming small sand dunes.