Planet Four Talk

Mounds with large triangular shadows?

  • mheretakih by mheretakih

    In the bottom center of the image I see two features that look like mounds and their creating very unique shadows. Any ideas on what these features are? For all I know they might be craters.

    Posted

  • mschwamb by mschwamb scientist, translator

    INicely spotted. Those are channels. They are carved into the surface of Mars by carbon dioxide gas trapped under the thawing carbon dioxide ice sheet on the south pole of Mars. You can learn more about what these features are here and here.

    Because of the Sun angle our brains can interpret depressions to look like mounds. You can learn more about that here.

    Cheers,

    ~Meg

    Posted