A Martian Dust Avalanche

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Caption:

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Relatively dark slope streaks are common on steep dust-mantled slopes of Mars. When imaged under high sun illumination they appear to be just a dark stain without topographic relief.

However, when imaged with the sun low in the sky (and at high resolution), we can clearly see the topographic signature . Surface material has been removed from the upper slopes and deposited in lobes, as expected from landslides (also called "mass movements").

The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. (The original image scale is 27.7 centimeters [10.9 inches] per pixel [with 1 x 1 binning]; objects on the order of 83 centimeters [32.7 inches] across are resolved.) North is up.

Background Info:

The University of Arizona, in Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

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