This terrain is covered by pits and scallops (pits open on one side)

May 24, 2012

This terrain is covered by pits and scallops (pits open on one side), perhaps due to collapse after sublimation of subsurface ice.

More than 10 meters thickness of ice must have sublimated from some areas. (Sublimation is the process of going from a solid directly to a gas). How did the ice get deposited? One idea is that it is from snowfall (in a different climate), but then it is difficult to explain the presence of the boulders. The other possibility is transport through the shallow subsurface in very thin films of water over many years.

Image source: https://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_025620_2275

Credits

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

ENLARGE

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