Plate Nº 57 · recorded October 19, 2026
Space & AstronomyReported finding
Three-Kilometre Mars Mountain Carved by Lava and Wind
A new Mars Express image reveals Amazonis Mensa, a three-kilometre flat-topped Martian mountain sculpted over three billion years by ancient lava flows and wind-blown sand.
By Priya Raman4 min read723 words
In brief
- Amazonis Mensa rises up to 3 km above the surrounding Martian plains — about three times the height of Table Mountain.
- The HRSC image was acquired on 14 June 2026 during Mars Express orbit 28328, at roughly 24 m/pixel resolution.
- Mars Express has mapped Mars in colour and 3D since its launch in 2003.
- Ancient lava flows, some three billion years old, partially buried craters and filled a 50-km-long valley in the region.
- Two differently aligned groups of yardangs record winds shaped by Amazonis Mensa itself.
A flat-topped mountain rising three kilometres above the Martian plains — roughly three times the height of South Africa's Table Mountain — appears in a new image from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter, revealing a terrain shaped for billions of years by lava, wind and impacting space rocks.
The image, acquired by the mission's High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on 14 June 2026 during orbit 28328, shows the feature known as Amazonis Mensa: a large, irregular mound of rock sitting just right of centre in the frame, with wind-sculpted ridges fanning out on either side.
Mars Express has explored the surface of Mars since it launched in 2003, mapping the planet in colour, at high resolution and in three dimensions. The HRSC was developed and is operated by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), with systematic data processing carried out at the DLR Institute of Space Research in Berlin-Adlershof. Researchers at Freie Universität Berlin turned the data into the image released this week. The ground resolution of the original image is approximately 24 metres per pixel, and the view is centred at about 3°S/215°E.
What exactly are we looking at?
Amazonis Mensa occupies an ancient region of Mars. It does not stand alone: it is one of three elongated mounds, joined by Gordii Dorsum to the east and Eumenides Dorsum to the west.
All three share a distinctive form. They are curved and stretched out, like fingers reaching across the planet's surface, and they gradually grow shallower as they approach the lowlands.
The mounds did not take this shape by chance. Their setting records two relentless forces — flowing lava and blowing wind — working over some three billion years.
How did lava reshape the terrain?
The region carries clear signs that material once flowed across it, most likely ancient lava dating back some three billion years. This lava resurfaced parts of the terrain and left it noticeably smooth, in contrast to the rougher ground around it.
The evidence is written into the craters. Some impact craters in the area have been filled with this smooth material since they formed. One crater is almost completely buried, with only its rim still visible above the surface — a ghostly outline of a former impact.
Next to one of these half-buried craters lies a valley 50 kilometres long, itself partly filled with the same smooth material. A narrower channel, 20 kilometres long, runs alongside another crater. Together these features sketch the scale of the ancient flows: enough molten rock to drown whole craters and flood valleys across a wide area.
What did wind contribute?
Lava was only half the story. Alongside flowing rock came flowing air, and the entire area shows signs of wind erosion.
The most striking evidence surrounds Amazonis Mensa itself. Crinkled, compressed ridges encircle the mountain in patterns that look almost like fingerprints on the Martian surface.
These ridges are called yardangs — streamlined formations carved as loose sand particles are whipped up by the wind and deployed like a cosmic sandblaster, grinding away at the rock grain by grain.
The image shows two distinct groups of yardangs, each aligned differently. Because yardangs orient themselves according to the direction of the winds that carve them, the two groups record winds blowing from different directions. Those winds, in turn, were influenced by Amazonis Mensa itself — the mountain helped steer the very forces that sculpted the land around it.
Why does this image matter?
For more than two decades, Mars Express has delivered a running record of how the Red Planet's surface evolves. Each HRSC image adds a piece to a larger puzzle: where lava flowed, how craters filled in, and how the thin Martian atmosphere slowly sands down the terrain.
The Amazonis Mensa view compresses billions of years of that history into a single frame — lava floods, buried craters and wind-carved ridges, all coexisting within a scene 24 metres to the pixel.
ESA has released the image in interactive form: viewers can zoom and pan across the surface or click on markers to explore its most interesting features. Additional HRSC views of the region, including 3D and topographical renderings, are available through the accompanying Freie Universität Berlin release.
A mountain three times the height of Table Mountain, sanded smooth by a wind that never stops.
via geo.fu-berlin.de (Original)
More from Priya Raman
Show full bio
Senior reporter covering people, launches and day-to-day practice in general science news at SciBeat.
252 articles