The Vastitas Borealis region, or northern lowlands, is a large area of low-lying surface that surrounds Mars’ North Pole.

On average, the region is 4-5 kilometers lower in elevation than the mean radius of the planet. How this basin formed is not known, although researchers have postulated that it could have been the result of a very large-scale impact sometime in Mars’ distant past. As of this writing, it is summer in the Martian northern hemisphere, allowing the HiRISE camera to image this region in full sunlight.

The sinuous landforms are dunes composed of sand that is made of basalt (a volcanic rock) or gypsum (a hydrous sulfate). There is a transition of modified barchanoid (crescent shaped dunes, generally wider than they are long) and transverse chains into star dunes; the winds change a lot in this area. The orientation of the barchanoid and transverse dunes indicate that the winds that formed them blow from the east (right side of image). In some areas there are a few linear dunes. The light-toned, smaller bedforms are designated transverse aeolian ridges (TARs).

Written by: Shawn Hart

All of the images produced by HiRISE and accessible on this site are within the public domain: there are no restrictions on their usage by anyone in the public, including news or science organizations. We do ask for a credit line where possible: Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

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.