MOC images have indeed confirmed the presence of layered outcrops within the Valles Marineris. The layered rock is now visible because of faulting and erosion. The MOC image reveals that the floor of western Candor Chasma at this location is indeed layered. What is most striking about the picture is the large number and uniformity of the layers, or beds. Each layer has a relatively smooth upper surface, and each is hard enough to form steep cliffs at its margins.
Layers indicate change.
Patterns like this, when found on Earth, usually indicate the presence of sediment deposited in dynamic, energetic, underwater environments. On Mars, these same patterns could very well indicate that the materials were deposited in a lake or shallow sea. However, it is not known for certain that these materials actually formed underwater, for it is possible that there were uniquely martian processes occurring in the distant past that would mimic the pattern of sedimentation in water. In both, north is toward the top and east to the right. To create the color versions seen here, we have taken much lower resolution red and blue images acquired by the MOC's wide angle cameras, and by the Viking Orbiter cameras in the 1970s, synthesized a green image by averaging red and blue, and created a palette of colors that represent the range of colors on Mars.