Cerberus is a large "dark spot" (an
albedo feature
An albedo feature is a large area on the surface of a planet (or other Solar System body) which shows a contrast in brightness or darkness (albedo) with adjacent areas.
Historically, albedo features were the first (and usually only) features to b ...
) located on Mars and named after the mythical dog
Cerberus. The arcuate (curved) markings in the upper right are in the
Amazonis
Amazonis Planitia (, Latin ''Amāzŏnis'') is one of the smoothest plains on Mars. It is located between the Tharsis and Elysium volcanic provinces, to the west of Olympus Mons, in the Amazonis and Memnonia quadrangles, centered at . The pl ...
plains and may be sand drifts. The volcano
Elysium Mons
Elysium Mons is a volcano on Mars located in the volcanic province Elysium, at , in the Martian eastern hemisphere. It stands about above its base, and about above the Martian ''datum'', making it the third tallest Martian mountain in terms o ...
, a yellow area north of Cerberus, has several channels radiating from its flanks. The three bright spots, upper left, are volcanoes partially veiled by thin clouds.
High resolution images show the bulk of the Cerberus plains is covered by platy-ridged and inflated lavas, which are interpreted as insulated sheet flows. Eastern Cerberus plains lavas originate at
Cerberus Fossae
The Cerberus Fossae are a series of semi-parallel fissures on Mars formed by faults which pulled the crust apart in the Cerberus region. They are 1235 km across and centered at 11.28 °N and 166.37 °E.
Their northernmost latitude is 16.16 ...
fissures and shields. Some flows extend for 2000 km through
Marte Vallis
Marte Vallis is a valley in the Amazonis quadrangle of Mars, located at 15 North and 176.5 West. It is 185 km long and was named for the Spanish word for "Mars". It has been identified as an outflow channel, carved in the geological past ...
into Amazonis Planitia. The
Athabasca Valles
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 ...
are both incised into pristine lavas and embayed by pristine lavas, indicating that Athabascan fluvial events were contemporaneous with volcanic eruptions. Deposits of the
Medusae Fossae Formation lie both over and under lavas, suggesting the deposition of this formation was contemporaneous with volcanism. Statistics of small craters indicate lavas in the western Cerberus plains may be less than a million years old, but the model
isochrons may be unreliable if the small crater population is dominated by secondary craters (craters formed by material ejected from larger impacts). Images showing no large craters with diameters larger than 500 meters superimposed on western Cerberus plains lavas indicate the same surface is younger than 49 Ma (million years).
See also
*
Geography of Mars
Areography, also known as the geography of Mars, is a subfield of planetary science that entails the delineation and characterization of regions on Mars. Areography is mainly focused on what is called physical geography on Earth; that is the di ...
Sources
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* {{GPN, 1107, Cerberus
External links
Google Mars- zoomable map centered on Cerberus
Albedo features on Mars