The Chasma Boreale valley on Mars’ North Pole
The Chasma Boreale valley on Mars’ North Pole
The most striking landscape feature on Mars’ North Pole is Chasma Boreale. Bordered by steep slopes, the ‘northern canyon’, almost 500 kilometres wide and up to two kilometres deep in places, extends into the North Pole ice cap. At its mouth, the valley is around 100 kilometres wide. Images with an even higher resolution acquired by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enable countless layers to be distinguished at the steep slopes, which, in a similar way to tree rings, reflect the seasonal changes in ice accumulation and dust deposits due to Martian storms. By examining these layer sections, scientists hope to obtain information about the development of the Martian climate.