THEMIS Vistas

FOR BILLIONS OF YEARS, winds have swept across the oldest landscapes of Mars, alternately depositing sand, dust, and other debris — and then eroding them away, in an endless cycle of burial and exhumation. This view looks northwest across a nameless crater in Arabia Terra — note the wind-sculpted hills (bottom and left, and on the central mound) as well as the dark sand dunes at right. (An 800 kB version of the image is available.) Credit: NASA/JPL/Arizona State University, R. Luk (vertical exaggeration about 3x).

To explore this area further, see Winds and Streaks of Arabia.