Ice-rich mantling deposits accumulate from the atmosphere in the Martian mid-latitudes in cycles during periods of high obliquity (axial tilt), as recently as several million years ago.
<p>These deposits accumulate over cycles in layers, and here in the southern mid-latitudes, where the deposits have mostly eroded away due to warmer temperatures, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://static.uahirise.org/images/2017/details/cut/ESP_048897_2125.jpg">small patches of the remnant layered deposits</a> can still be observed.
</p><p>The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 29.5 centimeters (11.6 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects on the order of 89 centimeters (35 inches) across are resolved.] North is up.
</p>
The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace &amp; Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. 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.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
<b><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21462">Catalog page</a></b><span style="white-space:nowrap"> <b>·</b></span> Full-res (<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA21462.jpg">JPEG</a><span style="white-space:nowrap"> <b>·</b></span> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/tiff/PIA21462.tif">TIFF</a>)