Image Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU

Context image credit: NASA/JPL/MOLA
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This VIS image shows an area where the wind is removing and sculpting the surface. The majority of the surface material in this region is poorly cemented and easy to erode. The knobs and hills represent areas of more resistant material. The wind has less effect on the resistant material and erodes the material around it, leaving a positive topographic feature. In this image an impact cratering event has created a region of the crater and surroundings that is resistant. With time the crater has ended up as a knob, revealing just how much material the wind has been able to erode since the crater formed.