It is equivalent to a butte or mesa-landforms common around the American west. Garvin says that its just the shading of the area that makes it look like a face. Over the years the face changes it starts to change shape or crust over and because of that it makes it look like a natural landform. NASA wouldn't have sent it out if they really thought is was alien. Some people think that the face is a bona fide for evidence that there is life on mars, but NASA would hide that information. they only sent the image out to get more peoples attention towards mars. They most likely sent out on the web to stir up peoples thoughts and to make them nervous about if there really is life on mars.

In 1976 you can sort of tell that there is a face on the rock formation. In 1998 you can really tell that there is a face there, but you can also see a change in lighting which because of that you can see the face more. In 2001 there is no lighting like the first one but its at a different angle so with the lighting on the second one it blocks out the cracks so its ageing over time and that proves that its a rock formation.