Banded Ridges In Hellas On Mars

Low lying areas in the Hellas region, which is the largest impact basin on Mars, often show complex groups of banded ridges, furrows, and pits.
These sorts of bands suggest that the surface material has flowed and twisted viscously like taffy. The orientation of the ridges and groups of ridges would then point in the direction of the flow, called stream lines.

Making this landscape even more complex is when we see that the ridges are sometimes disconnected. They stop abruptly, break up into blocky segments that sometimes appear offset. Such mixed up fragments give an initial sense that parts of the flow have been rafted apart from one another.

Image is less than 5 km (3 mi) across and is 259 km (161 mi) above the surface. For full images including scale bars and additional information about this scene, visit the source link.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona larger image