Mars From Afar
Faulting
The deep trough slashing diagonally across the center of this image
resulted from faulting and down-dropping of the land. Boulders the
size of small buildings can be seen on the slopes of this
depression, which is sunlit from the left. Dark streaks on the
trough's slopes are the paths of small landslides. This trough and
the shallower one in the lower part of the image cut across lava
flows, suggesting that the trenches formed after the lava had cooled
and hardened. Short, parallel ridges in the valley floors are
probably dunes.