Athabasca Valles

This VIS image shows part of Athabasca Valles. Several streamlined islands are visible, with 'tails' pointing downstream. Arising from Cerberus Fossae, the formation mode of this channel is still being debated. While the channel features are similar to water flow, other features are similar to lava flows, and yet other features have an appearance of slabs of material that floated on an underlying fluid. This is just one of the complex channel formations in the Elysium Planitia region.