Many slopes in the middle latitudes of Mars show icy flows or glaciers. The region shown here, in the south-facing slope of a crater, is unusual because the flows have bright highlights .

The color and brightness variations are likely due to surface coatings of bright dust and dark sand. There is no evidence that these flows are currently active, but they may have been active only millions of years ago. These flows may well contain ice today in their interiors, as confirmed in places by the subsurface radar experiment on MRO.

Written by: Alfred McEwen  (18 September 2017)

This is a stereo pair with ESP_014058_1450 .

More info and image formats at http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_014335_1450

Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona