Dark Light
The Utopia Planitia region contains many distinctive landscapes.

The bumpy and pitted ground in this image may have formed through the eruption of either lava or mud onto the surface from deep underground. 

Mud volcanoes on Earth provide oases for life. If these features also formed through the eruption of mud, these landforms may hold clues to possible life-supporting oases in Mars’ distant past. 


Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona https://www.uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_070298_2145
Related Posts

Faulting Mars

This region of Xanthe Terra has mostly been contracted due to thrust faulting, but this local region shows…
Fans and Polygons

Fans and Polygons

This is a place where fans emerge relatively late in the Martian spring from polygonal cracks owing to the process of sublimation.

Lovely Layers

Arabia Terra is one of our favorite regions to image, mainly due to the diversity and beauty of its layered deposits.
Athabasca Valles

Athabasca Valles

This image is of the upper part of Athabasca Valles, a very young flood channel on Mars that might have been carved by a flood of lava instead of a flood of water.