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Dry Ice

"Swiss cheese" holes in the south pole of Mars. The white substance in the picture is dry ice - made of carbon dioxide. The depressions in the dry ice layer reach a depth of only 10 meters. They are formed in the red summer season, when the sun's rays strike at a low angle in the polar region, and reach mainly the steep walls of the depressions - which encourages development laterally rather than in depth. The photograph, in its full resolution, has a resolution of 50 centimeters per pixel. Taken on March 25, 2017 by NASA's Mars orbiter MRO. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona.

Why does part of the south pole of Mars look like Swiss cheese?

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This image, taken by the High Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (HIRISE) on the Mars-orbiting MRO spacecraft, shows an example of "straight channels" that can be explained by clumps of dry ice clumping down a sand dune. Photograph NASA/JPL-CALTECH/UNIV. OF ARIZONA

Who snowboarded on Mars?

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