Erosion in a Martian crater carves buttes and stair-like layers

The powerful HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provides a spectacular look into Jiji Crater on Mars, where erosion has carved buttes and stair-like layers similar in appearance to formations found in several other craters in the Arabia Terra and Meridiani Planum regions. The similarities indicate the same process at work over a large area across geologic time scales.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Here is a wider-angle view that puts the above image in context:

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona