Wing Dike of Hardened Lava in New Mexico

This photograph from northwestern New Mexico shows a ridge roughly 30 feet about 10 meters tall that formed from lava filling an underground fracture then resisting erosion better than the material around it did.

This photograph from northwestern New Mexico shows a ridge roughly 30 feet about 10 meters tall that formed from lava filling an underground fracture then resisting erosion better than the material around it did. The dike extends from a volcanic peak (out of view here) called Shiprock in English and Tsé Bit'a'í, meaning "rock with wings," in the Navajo language. It offers an Earth analog for some larger hardened-lava walls on Mars http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21266

Photographer Laura Kerber
EarthMars Reconnaissance Orbiter MRO