Noctis Labyrinthus – tectonically shaped 'high mountains'
Noctis Labyrinthus – tectonically shaped 'high mountains'
At the western end of the Valles Marineris, the Noctis Labyrinthus area – the 'Labyrinth of Night' – forms the transition to the Tharsis region with its four enormous volcanoes, some of which are more than 20 kilometres high. Extension processes in the Martian crust caused an area approximately the size of Germany to break up into a bizarre landscape of mesas up to 7000 metres tall, separated by tectonic grabens. Even the depressions visible on the highland plain in the left half of the image are not shallow valleys eroded by water, but tectonic structures. The perspective HRSC image section shown here has a width of approximately 120 kilometres at the base.
