The floor of Hellas Basin is often obscured by atmospheric haze and dust, but it tends to be quite clear this time of year (northern spring and southern fall).

HiRISE images are revealing some very strange landforms on the floor of Hellas. Materials appear to have flowed in a viscous manner, like ice. Viscous flow features are common over the middle latitudes of Mars, but those in Hellas are often distinctive for unknown reasons.

The subimage shows an interesting area in color (reddish areas are dustier).

Written by: Alfred McEwen   (13 January 2010)

This is a stereo pair with PSP_007715_1420 .

More info and image formats at http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_016022_1420

Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona