A stunning new image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has opened up a new perspective on the Red Planet's aquatic past. A photograph released by NASA this week shows a view of Holden Crater in the southern Margaritifer Terra, a shallow-bedded sediment striped with white and purple stripes.
According to the space agency, water once seeped through a breach in the crater rim, leaving sediment in the southwest. Individual layers can be seen over an area from hundreds of meters to kilometers. CRISM MRO observations suggest there may even be clay in there.
Earlier this month, an image of Mars Echus Chasma showed a deeper understanding of the behavior of ancient water that was over three billion years ago. At the time, volcanic and tectonic activity on Mars caused huge amounts of groundwater to flow from Echus Chasma. Stunning new images from ESA's Mars Express show the scars of these ancient mega-floods seeping through the Kasei Valles area. This network of outflow channels is one of the largest on Mars, covering approximately 3,000 kilometers (1,864 mi) from its source.
Echus Chasma lies east of the Tharsis volcanic region, and north of Valles Marineris canyon, according to the ESA. The remains of the flood extend as far as the Chryse Planitia plain, about 3,000 km from the source.
“The combination of volcanism, tectonics, collapse and subsidence in the Tarsis region resulted in several large releases of groundwater from the Echus Chasma, which subsequently flooded the Kasei Valles area about 3.6-3.4 billion years ago. These ancient mega-floods have left their mark on the features we see today,”according to ESA.
Roman Klaviaturovich