A view from above: the sands of Utopia Planitia

This image shows a curious feature seen often across Utopia Planitia: a series of shadowy ditches around 20 km long and 2 km wide stretching out across the surface, meeting to form a giant shape.

These ditches – also known as grabens – are formed when the surface cracks, either because layers of wet sediments form weak points or because of tectonic activity.

The grabens of Utopia Planitia are also featured in a 2016 image release by Freie Universität Berlin (where the working group behind these new images is based).

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.

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[Image description: An overhead view of the Martian surface in warm orange and rust tones. The terrain appears rough and fractured, with long, winding cracks and lighter streaks cutting across darker rock. The surface looks dry and weathered, with subtle variations in colour and texture giving it a layered, broken appearance.]