Gallery

The north polar cap of Mars is approximately 1000 km across, and the ice is up to 3 km thick in places. The polar cap is characterised by striking spiral shapes in its contours. Image credit: Holly Clifford 

The spiralling troughs which characterise the north polar cap of Mars expose layers within the ice. The layers are evoked by engraved lines. Image credit: Holly Clifford 

The north polar ice cap of Mars is surrounded by huge frozen deserts containing large sand dunes formed by the Martian winds. The sand dunes are evoked here by hammered textures,. They are located close the edge of the polar cap, with ice layers evoked by the engraved lines. Image credit: Holly Clifford 

The surface of Mars is marked by craters formed by meteors smashing into the planet. The large circular structure in the centre right of this image shows one such crater, just beyond the margin of the north polar ice cap (on the left). The ice cap itself has relatively few craters on its surface, indicating that the ice is young (i.e. there hasn't been much time for craters to form on top of the ice). Image credit: Holly Clifford 

The sculpture represents the 3-D shape of the north polar ice cap of Mars, with cuts along contour lines adapted from data returned from robotic spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet. They show how the polar cap towers above the surrounding terrains, with ice reaching 3 km thickness in some places.

A major feature of the north polar cap of Mars is a huge chasm called 'Chasma Boreale', which cuts hundreds of kilometers from the margins of the polar cap to its central region. In this image, it is the deep bright feature which extends from the centre left to the middle of the image. A line of hammered marks within the chasm represents sand dunes formed on the floor of the chasm by the wind. Image credit: Holly Clifford