In the ancient cratered southern highlands of Mars, the faint traces of a wet past are seen in the form of channels (lower centre), fluidised debris around craters (bottom right) and blocks of eroded sediments (top left). Volcanic activity may have deposited the fine dusting of dark material visible in the top left.

The image was taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express on 15 January 2013 (orbit 11504), with a ground resolution of approximately 22 m per pixel. The image centre lies at about 4°S / 114°E, close to Tagus Valles in an unnamed region north of Hesperia Planum.

Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum), CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

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