ESA Science & Technology - Ice and Dust at Martian North Pole

This image, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, was released at the First Mars Express Science Conference this week. It shows the areas of focused research - water, ice, glaciers and volcanism.

This image shows the Martian north polar ice cap with layers of water ice and dust for the first time in perspective view. A close-up view (see also "Ice and Dust at Martian North Pole - detail") shows the upper right section of this image.

Here we see cliffs which are almost 2 kilometres high, and the dark material in the caldera-like structures and dune fields could be volcanic ash.

 
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