Recent investigations of the Southern Highlands on Mars have revealed some spectacular aspects of the planet's geology. Well, they may seem like common landscapes to the untrained eye, but they are a treasure trove of information for geologists and planetary scientists, who can gather a wealth of information from them. These particular images were snapped by the Mars Express orbiter above an area known as the Sirenum Fossae, and they depict a high number of craters right next to each other, both old and new alike. These datasets hint at the Red Planet's troubled past, experts say.

The image accompanying this piece covers an area about the size of the state of Belgium, or about 29,450 square kilometers. It covers a swath of land some 230 kilometers long by 127 kilometers wide, and is centered in a region of the Fossae just to the north of the large Magelhaens Crater. Featuring a resolution of 29 meters per pixel, the photo is not exactly the most accurate one ever snapped of the Martian surface, but it gains value through the data it conveys.

A part of the Tharsis region, the Sirenum Fossa was formed by stresses placed on the crust during the uprising of the large feature it occupies. This is made obvious by the fact that it's made up of a system of grabens, a series of depressed blocks of land that are bordered by parallel faults. This is a testament to the rough geological history that churned Mars in its early days, before it turned into the inhospitable world it is today. Some of the largest craters in this region, including features that are over 50 kilometers in diameter, are eroded around the edges, which means that they were formed a long time ago. On the other hand, some still have crisp contours, indicating that they formed more recently.

“There is an impact crater with a diameter of about 28 km to the left of the image. In contrast to other craters in its vicinity, it has experienced less erosion – its crater rim and central peak are still preserved. There are three other craters nearby: to the west is a large crater with a diameter of 56 km, to the northeast one that stretches 34 km across and a smaller crater of only 9 km diameter to the south,” experts at the European Space Agency (ESA) write in a press release. The agency manages the Mars Express mission. The orbiter has been studying the Red Planet since early 2004, and is scheduled to continue to do so until at least 2012.