Uzboi Vallis is a

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

lying situated within the

Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle The Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle is also referred to as MC-19 (Mars Chart-19) ...

(MC-19) region on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

. It is named after the

Uzboy The Uzboy (sometimes rendered Uzboj) was a distributary of the Amu Darya which flowed through the northwestern part of the Karakum Desert of Turkmenistan until the 17th century, when it abruptly dried up, eliminating the agricultural population t ...

dry channel, now in

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

, which repeatedly served as the main channel of the

Amu Darya The Amu Darya, tk, Amyderýa/ uz, Amudaryo// tg, Амударё, Amudaryo ps, , tr, Ceyhun / Amu Derya grc, Ὦξος, Ôxos (also called the Amu, Amo River and historically known by its Latin language, Latin name or Greek ) is a major rive ...

river. The

begins on the northern rim of the

Argyre basin Argyre Planitia is a plain located within the impact basin Argyre in the southern highlands of Mars. Its name comes from a map produced by Giovanni Schiaparelli in 1877; it refers to Argyre, a mythical island of silver in Greek mythology. Arg ...

, and cuts through several

crater Crater may refer to: Landforms *Impact crater, a depression caused by two celestial bodies impacting each other, such as a meteorite hitting a planet *Explosion crater, a hole formed in the ground produced by an explosion near or below the surfac ...

s, before ending at Holden crater. Mapbondcrater.jpg, Part of Uzboi Vallis along with nearby craters. Colors relate to elevation. Bond crater Uzboi Vallis 574A14.jpg, Bond crater (bottom), Uzboi Vallis, and Martynov crater (top) ( Viking Orbiter 1 image) Uzboi Vallis is believed to have been formed by running water. It is believed that layers were formed on the floor of Uzboi Vallis (as shown in the

HiRISE High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is a camera on board the ''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' which has been orbiting and studying Mars since 2006. The 65 kg (143 lb), US$40 million instrument was built under the direction o ...

image below) when drainage was blocked by the impact that formed Holden Crater to the north. Eventually the lake in the area of Uzboi Vallis went high enough to overtop the rim of Holden. The water then eroded the deposits to expose the layers as they are today. The sediments that make up the layers appear to be coarse in size, suggesting they were probably formed by a rapid flow.Grant, J., T. Parker. 2002. Drainage evolution of the Margaritifer Sinus region, Mars. J. Geophysic. Res. 107, doi:10.1029/2001JE001678. The more narrow and sinuous

Nirgal Vallis Nirgal Vallis is a long river channel bordering the Coprates quadrangle and Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle of Mars at 28.4° south latitude and 42° west longitude. It is 610 km long and is named after Nergal, the Babylonian god of war and ...

ends at Uzboi Vallis and emptied into it. It has been suggested that Uzboi, Ladon, Margaritifer and

Ares Ares (; grc, Ἄρης, ''Árēs'' ) is the Greek god of war and courage. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. The Greeks were ambivalent towards him. He embodies the physical valor necessary for success in war b ...

Valles, although now separated by large craters, once comprised a single

outflow channel Outflow channels are extremely long, wide swathes of scoured ground on Mars. They extend many hundreds of kilometers in length and are typically greater than one kilometer in width. They are thought to have been carved by huge outburst floods. ...

flowing north into

Chryse Planitia Chryse Planitia (Greek, "''Golden Plain''") is a smooth circular plain in the northern equatorial region of Mars close to the Tharsis region to the west, centered at . Chryse Planitia lies partially in the Lunae Palus quadrangle, partially in th ...

.Parker, T.J., Clifford, S.m., and Banerdt, W.B. (2000). Argyre Planitia and the Mars global hydrologic cycle. LPSC XXXI, Abstract 2033. The source of this outflow has been suggested as overflow from the Argyre crater, formerly filled to the brim as a

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

by channels (Surius, Dzigai, and Palacopus Valles) draining down from the south pole. If real, the full length of this drainage system would be over 8000 km, the longest known drainage path in the solar system. This system has been called the

Uzboi-Landon-Morava (ULM) The Uzboi-Landon-Morava (ULM) outflow system is a long series of channels and depressions that may have carried water across a major part of Mars. It starts with channels that drain into the Argyre basin in the Argyre quadrangle. Water ponded ...

system. Image:Uzboi.jpg, Layers in Uzboi Vallis, as seen by

. Image located in the

References

External links

ESA Mars Express: Crater Holden and Uzboi Vallis
{{Portal bar, Solar System Valleys and canyons on Mars Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle