Today's Martian Picture of the Day shows six views of Mars. (NASA/JPL/MSSS)
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Today's Martian Picture of the Day shows an example of the extremely odd, seemingly scrambled layered rocks exposed by erosion near the deepest part of the deepest basin on Mars, Hellas. This pattern of eroded, and perhaps deformed layers was once exposed to the martian surface, then buried, and more recently exposed again. The story behind these layers is not really understood; some members of the MOC team have—for nearly 9 years now—taken to calling these features, "taffy-pull terrain". The image is from the area near 43.1°S, 307.3°W. (NASA/JPL/MSSS)
Today's Martian Picture of the Day shows gullies and cracked and stressed gully apron deposits in a south mid-latitude crater. Gullies can also be seen in the deep shadow on the north wall of the crater. These gullies might have formed by the erosive action of liquid water, sometime in the not-too-distant martian past. The image is from the area near 36.7°S, 206.2°W. (NASA/JPL/MSSS)
Today's Martian Picture of the Day shows layers exposed in the north polar region of Mars. The north polar cap is underlain by a thick sequence of layered material. The layers are most commonly exposed on the slopes of troughs that are believed to have formed by wind erosion. The layers give a banded appearance. In this example, some of the layers are cut off (truncated) by other layers. This truncation is a classic, textbook example of an erosional unconformity, a term commonly used by geologists. The unconformity occurs when deposition of new layered material stops for a while, and erosion occurs. Then, new layers form on top of the eroded surface and the older layers, at some point in time when the erosion stops and deposition of layered material resumes. The image is from the area near 78.6°N, 342.0°W. (NASA/JPL/MSSS)
Today's Martian Picture of the Day shows dark-toned, windblown sands and ripples, surrounding a light-toned hill, interpreted to be sedimentary rock, in Ganges Chasma. Ganges Chasma is part of the giant Valles Marineris trough system on Mars. The image is from the area near 8.6°S, 46.1°W. (NASA/JPL/MSSS)
Today's Martian Picture of the Day shows the Elysium/Mare Cimmerium face of Mars. (NASA/JPL/MSSS)
Today's Martian Picture of the Day shows the patterned ground of the cold, martian northern plains. The circular features are the sites of buried impact craters. The image is from the area near 70.5°N, 340.6°W. (NASA/JPL/MSSS)
Today's Martian Picture of the Day shows the contact between a group of yardangs, tapered ridges formed by the removal of relatively easily-eroded material (e.g., sedimentary rock) and a concentration of dark-toned windblown sand on the floor of a crater in the Terra Sabaea region of Mars. The image is from the area near 1.4°N, 333.9°W. (NASA/JPL/MSSS)
Today's Martian Picture of Day shows a mesa and an impact grater just east of Phlegra Montes. The mesa is the eroded remnant of a once more extensive terrain. An apron of material surrounds the mesa. The image is from the area near 38.5°N, 193.4°W. (NASA/JPL/MSSS)
Today's Martian Picture of the Day shows outcrops of light-toned, massively-bedded rock in western Candor Chasma, part of the Valles Marineris trough system. The image is from the area near 5.5°S, 73.8°W. (NASA/JPL/MSSS)