Search Menu

Athabasca Valles

Browsing Tag
2 posts

The Athabasca Valles are a late Amazonian-period outflow channel system in the central Elysium Planitia region of Mars, located to the south of the Elysium Rise. They are part of a network of outflow channels in this region that are understood to emanate from large fissures in the Martian surface rather than the chaos terrains that source the circum-Chryse outflow channels. The Athabasca Valles in particular emanate from one of the Cerberus Fossae fissures and flow downstream to the southwest, constrained to the south by a wrinkle ridge for over 100 km, before debouching into the Cerberus Palus volcanic plain. The Athabasca Valles are widely understood to be the youngest outflow channel system on the planet.

Athabasca Valles

Dark Light
Athabasca Valles

Athabasca Valles

This image is of the upper part of Athabasca Valles, a very young flood channel on Mars that might have been carved by a flood of lava instead of a flood of water.