This close up shows a complexly fractured and grooved section of the south polar layered deposits. Illumination is from the lower right, and the scene is about 600 meters (approximately 650 yards) across.

The south polar layered deposits are an accumulation of mostly water ice and dust, similar in some ways to ice caps like those in Greenland and Antarctica. In this example, the icy, dusty layers are barely visible, obscured by a complex system of ridges and fractures that formed after the layers were deposited. The layers themselves are highlighted by sunlight and look like broad swales underlying the fracturing.

In the upper left of this example, one can see curvature in the layers which may have formed when the ice was flowing or which may have been due to collapse and slumping of some layers sometime after they were deposited but before they were fractured. The exact cause of the fracturing and grooving is unknown.
Written by: Kathryn Fishbaugh

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For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona. The image data were processed using the U.S. Geological Survey’s ISIS3 software.