Valles Marineris

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The viewer's distance is 2,500 kilometers from the surface of the planet.

 

The mosaic is composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. The center of the scene (lat -7, lon 78) shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 3,000 kilometers long and up to 8 kilometers deep, extending from Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east.

 

Many huge ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain and north-central canyons and run north. Many of the channels flowed into a basin called Acidalia Planitia, which is the dark area in the extreme north of this picture. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots).

 

South of Valles Marineris is very ancient terrain covered by many impact craters.

 


Martian Atmosphere Observations

 

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