Wind erosion in the Martian polar regions.

Wind erosion may have played a dominant role in sculpturing the terrains of the polar regions of Mars. Many topographic features of the pitted terrain and the laminated terrain are consistently aligned with wind directions inferred from albedo markings. Cold air outflow from the polar cap veering to the west as a result of the coriolis force may account for the observed alignments. The remarkable pseudocircular and spiral features that underlie the residual frost caps in both polar regions may have been formed by the more complex circulation patterns of the inner polar zone.