![\"Ice](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ice-Planet-Recon-Looking-For.jpg\")
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ID: ESP_069857_2650 date: 21 June 2021 altitude: 318 km The North Polar Layered Deposits (NPLD) are large layered deposits of dusty water-ice in the northern polar region of Mars. The layering we see is caused mainly by slight variations in the dust-to-ice ratio, which records variations in the Martian climate over time.<\/p>\n Another interesting aspect of the NPLD is the fact that we have observed on its scarps numerous avalanche events (for example, PSP_007338_2640<\/a> and ESP_016228_2650<\/a>). Avalanches have also been spotted at this scarp<\/a>. Spring monitoring is key to constrain frequency of avalanches and timing of \u201cavalanche season\u201d onset on Mars.<\/p>\n Can you spot any avalanches in the image?<\/p>\n Astrobiology, Astrogeology,<\/p>\n Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager\/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na\u2019Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he\/him) \ud83d\udd96\ud83c\udffb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ID: ESP_069857_2650 date: 21 June 2021 altitude: 318 km NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/University of Arizona larger image The North Polar Layered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[118646,138255,26576,118567,6248,28197,111,139,158806,69,78383,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-285045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-avalanche","9":"tag-cryosphere","10":"tag-geology","11":"tag-hirise","12":"tag-mars","13":"tag-mars-reconnaissance-orbiter","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-north-polar-layered-deposits","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-polar","19":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNASA\/JPL-Caltech\/University of Arizona larger image<\/a> <\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/keith_cowing.jpg\")
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