...a particularly smeary image from the MOC, one of many taken over the years. I don't see any mistiness or other indications of cloud or fog, just camera movement as the image was acquired.

As for the Viking "geyser" images, they remain enigmatic. There is no reason at all (it seems to me) why there shouldn't be geysering at the surface even now, since it seems self-evident that subsurface fluid water under any pressure at all, would always be migrating toward the near-vacuum of the surface where it would "geyser" out more often than not.

It seems self-evident as well that these events should occur -- if they occur -- in areas "recently" volcanically active, oh like the Tharsis Bulge and the volcanoes associated with it, for example.

But there remains no confirmation that the Viking era "geyser" is what it appears to be. For all the scrutiny the MGS images have received, there are only a relatively few images which show possible activity at the surface (such as the "sand geysers" at the south pole) -- and they are disputed.

This suggests to me that if geysering does occur at the surface of Mars, it is relatively infrequent, scattered, and occurs at a relatively modest scale, for relatively brief periods of time.

This may represent a remnant of a formerly vast -- and vast-scale -- geysering activity that once occurred widely and spectacularly, such as geysering events that were captured at Triton when time was, or that are currently taking place on Io and possibly other satellites.

As for "blurriness" in images, I've often wondered if the smooth-sidedness of hills found all over the Martian surface (but especially noticeable in Acidalia and Cydonia) is the result of clinging fogs and mists, indicating a very icy composition.

See HERE for an example.

There are many, many, many more -- and I don't think the phenomenon has ever been discussed in the literature. However, maybe you have found some references to it that I have missed.

Cheers, BRFelix