PIA17571: Fretted Terrains and Ground Deformation
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
 Spacecraft:  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
 Instrument:  HiRISE
 Product Size:  2880 x 1800 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  University of Arizona/HiRISE-LPL
 Other  
Information: 
Other products from image ESP_017154_1390
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA17571.tif (15.56 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA17571.jpg (1.05 MB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

This observation shows an excellent example of what is called "fretted terrain," termed so because of the eroded appearance of the surface.

What causes this kind of terrain? One explanation is the sublimation of subsurface ground ice that goes directly from a solid state to a gaseous one. When that occurs, the material is removed and the ground can collapse in a jumbled pattern. The curving ridges and lineations could be indicative of slow movement of the ice-rich material, perhaps in a way that has similarities to rock glaciers on Earth.

HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the orbiter's HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Image Addition Date:
2013-10-16