When a meteorite strikes the Martian surface, the impact releases energy equivalent to many nuclear weapons in a fraction of a second. The rock at the impact site is instantly vaporised, melted, and fragmented. Material is ejected outward in all directions at high velocity, landing around the crater in a pattern called the ejecta blanket. This process happens in seconds. Its record can persist for millions of years.
What makes Martian ejecta unusual
On the Moon, ejecta blankets are thin sheets of fragmented rock that extend radially outward from the crater. On Mars, many craters have a different pattern: lobate ejecta, where the ejecta blanket has a rounded, layered edge that looks more like a lava flow than a ballistic deposit.
The leading explanation for lobate ejecta is that the impactor struck ground containing significant quantities of ice or water. The energy of the impact briefly melted this material, creating a water-saturated slurry that flowed outward before freezing. The lobate edge is the frozen front of this flow.
This interpretation means that every lobate ejecta crater on Mars is an indirect indicator of subsurface ice or water at the time of impact. Mapping these craters across the Martian surface provides a record of where water was present - and when.
The frozen splash
The HiRISE image captures one such crater at a resolution where the flow textures within the ejecta blanket are visible. The lobes have a layered structure - multiple flow events, or variations in the viscosity of the ejecta slurry as it cooled. The overall pattern is a frozen splash: the record of a single violent event, preserved in detail for what may be millions of years.
The Axisophy print
The Impact Crater Ejecta print from the Radiance collection presents this frozen splash pattern in monochrome at wall scale. The flow textures within the ejecta and the sharp lobate edge of the blanket are clearly visible. It is one of the most dynamic-looking images in the collection - a record of energy, briefly released and then locked in place.
