Among the most interesting landforms on Mars are features referred to as ‘chaotic terrain’. Dozens or even hundreds of isolated mountains up to 2000 m high are scattered in these extensive regions. Seen from orbit, they form a bizarre, chaotic pattern. Such terrains are found over a large area to both the west and east of Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in the Solar System. Hydraotes Chaos, showcased in this video, is a typical example of this type of landscape.

The data used to generate these images and the simulated flyover were acquired with the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter.

This anaglyph movie can be viewed using stereoscopic glasses with red–green or red–blue filters.

More information and images of this region are available on the DLR website