text: Some of the people on the mission said that it reminds them of landforms on earth. Jim Garvin, cheif scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program found that the Face on Mars was the equivilant of a butte or mesa on earth. Buttes or mesas are common around the American west. Garvin even said that "It remeinds me most of Middle Buttle in the Snake River Plain of Idaho," The team that Garvin led to take the picture in 2001 agree that it is a natural landform.