Overview of the mouth of the Ares Vallis outflow channel showing key features
Overview of the mouth of the Ares Vallis outflow channel showing key features
During the period of Mars’ early formation, large quantities of water flowed through the Ares Vallis outflow channel, leaving signs of erosion. The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA's Mars Express spacecraft acquired images of these erosion marks on 11 May 2011 during orbit 9393. The resolution is about 15 metres per pixel; north is to the right. The large impact crater Oraibi (frame 1) was inundated by water, which broke through its southern rim. On the sides of the valley are terraced ‘river banks’ resulting from the water flow (frame 2). The streamlined ‘islands’ on the valley floor (frame 3) reveal the former direction of flow. On the high plateau, many isolated buttes, or monadnocks, are visible (frame 4); they appear to be remnants of an earlier continuous coverage that has been largely eroded. An approximately four-kilometre-wide landslide can be seen in the upper-left corner (frame 5); it may have been triggered by the impact of the asteroid whose crater ejecta are visible in frame 4.
