A Dark-Toned, Pitted Mound in a Crater in Northeast Arabia Terra

This fascinating observation shows us a dark-toned mound with pits inside an impact crater. Are these pits the result of sublimation?

The crater itself is an ancient one, as evidenced by the eroded rim. For the mound inside, HiRISE resolution can give us a closer look at textural features that might help explain what we're looking at: layers in pit walls, or perhaps cracks from expansion?

HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.