This is a photo of melting sand dunes on Mars. Spring is just starting in Mars' Northern Hemisphere. Therefore, the sand dunes close to the pole are melting. The dunes, made of carbon dioxide and ice, are sublimating striaght to their gaseuos state. The thin ice thaws first; then the sand absorbes the sunlight and speeds up the thawing process (also, some sandy jets might explode throught the thin ice!). By summer, the spots of sand will cover the all the dunes. It will then be completly thawed and black.
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