Trouvelot Crater from above

This view was generated from the digital terrain model and the nadir and colour channels of the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express. It shows a bird’s-eye view of a region inside Trouvelot Crater, and features the worn-away crater wall in the background; the dark, volcanic deposits covering the crater floor; and a light-toned mound seen sitting within these deposits.

The dark material has been shaped by wind into rippling dunes known as ‘barchan’ dunes, visible as the smaller, darker marks sweeping from bottom-left to middle-right. These dunes are characteristically crescent-shaped, and created when winds blow in one direction.

The light-toned mound can be seen to the upper-left of the frame; this feature is around 20 km long and covered in ridges and grooves. It’s thought that this mound formed in the presence of water, but the exact processes involved remain a matter of debate.

Read more

[Image description: A tilted aerial view of a Martian landscape, coloured in soft browns, reds, and purplish shadows. The surface is smooth in places and rugged in others, dotted with many small circular craters. Toward the top, low ridges and raised terrain cast long shadows, while darker patches spread across the centre like stains or dust deposits. The overall scene looks dry, windswept, and gently rolling, with subtle variations in texture across the barren surface.]