Old are the light-toned, layered mounds scattered across the image. The layers form stair-steps leading to the top of each mound. In most cases, the 'steps' are not clean, but are instead covered with debris eroded from the next layer, or step, above. The mounds are remnants of layered rock that once covered the entire scene. They were deposited as sediment in the large, unnamed crater in which these landforms occur. Their regular thickness and repeated character suggest that episodic, or perhaps cyclic, processes brought sediment to the crater floor. If the crater contained water at the time the sediments were deposited, then they represent lakebed materials.

Caption: Malin Space Science Systems