It is spring in the southern hemisphere of Mars, and the region shown here appears to have recently emerged from beneath a thick winter blanket of frost. The left side of the image is dominated by a thick stack of layered deposits, usually composed of a mixture of CO₂ ice and dust. The right side of the image also shows the smooth surface of the polar layered deposits. The center of the image shows the lower-lying areas of the region where darker tones dominate. A closer look reveals, that the surface is covered with a pattern of polygons with different scales. On Earth, this kind of polygons are common periglacial features in arctic and antarctic regions and usually indicate the presence of water ice in the ground. Periglacial is a term that refers to regions and processes where cold climate contributes to the evolution of landforms and landscapes. Polygons form from freeze/thaw cycles of ground ice over the course of several years and even centuries. Landforms like this are also called “patterned ground”. The patterns often take the form of large polygons, each bounded by either troughs or ridges made up of rock particles different in size from those seen in the interior of the polygon.