Basin in the West Candor Chasma Layered Deposits
This basin in Ceti Mensa exposes concentric rings in the sedimentary layers. Dark sand ripples and textures in the bedrock suggesting wind scouring are also apparent.
Wind is a powerful, erosive force, transporting fine-grain sediments that can shape topography and expose darker material underneath the surface. One such feature of wind-scour on Mars is in Gale Crater, where scouring has created a stair-step pattern.
HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the orbiter's HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.