
Wow. This pictures shows a billowing dust cloud caused by an avalanche from the left part of the picture. The picture was taken straight down and the the reddish bands just left of center are a 2300 foot cliff with a 60 degree slope. The white on the left is carbon dioxide frost that is sublimating as the martian spring advances. You can read more about this photo here and here.
It’s interesting that the photo may have ended up being stored for a few weeks before being examined. Generally there are too many photos coming in from the HiRise camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to analyze them as they arrive on Earth. However, the avalanche photo just happened to be the first photo taken with the camera after the camera automatically shut down due to a safing event.
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