We know Mars is not made of cheese, but Cornell researcher Peter Thomas points out that some telling new features on the Red Planet look a lot like the Swiss variety. More importantly, the landforms hold clues to how permafrost develops at the poles and shapes the look of the land.

The features stand in stark contrast to smaller bumps, pits and cracks left behind at the north pole during summer, when the ice has retreated to its smallest annual area.

The distinctly varying landscapes indicate markedly different climates at the two poles, Thomas and his colleagues write in the March 9 issue of the journal Nature.

The north has a pitted surface of water ice that seems to blend into the layers below, Thomas told SPACE.com. The ice appears to sit on a bed of rock.

At the north pole, ice forms pits estimated to be less than 6 feet (2 meters) deep.

But things are much more dynamic around the south pole, which is 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) higher. Walls of carbon dioxide ice, up to 26 feet (8 meters), lead from flat mesas down to circular depressions that are as much as 656 feet (200 meters) across. In other areas, smooth groves take on the look of a human fingerprint (see click-to-enlarge images).

The ice around the south pole appears to represent distinct deposits that build up in layers.

"The difference...mostly likely arises from different climate at the poles allowing different mixtures of carbon dioxide ice, water ice and dust to be deposited," Thomas said. "The trick now is to relate that to the present climate and figure out exactly what these layers and their peculiar erosional forms are saying about changing martian climate."